"Securing a Sustainable Future" white paper - our response

This bill provides an opportunity for the Welsh Government to progress a rights-based approach to environmental law. This could include enshrining the rights to environment information, participation and access to justice - protected under the Aarhus Convention - and the introduction of right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. At the very least, the Welsh Government should commit to a publishing a Green Paper to explore how to embed these important rights more fully in Welsh law.

We broadly welcome the proposal for a new, statutory nature recovery framework and support its principal elements – a headline target in primary legislation; a suite of supporting statutory targets introduced through secondary legislation; a long-term national strategy; a shorter-term national delivery plan; and a process to support and secure delivery at a local level. Drawing on our experiences during the development and implementation of the target setting framework in the UK Government’s Environment Act 2021, there are four main areas where we suggest that the proposed framework in the White Paper should be strengthened in a number of ways.

Download our full response below.