The Welsh Government has been heavily criticised by a key Senedd Committee over its responses to the Nature Emergency in Wales that was declared by the Senedd in 2021.
The Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee’s report published in January 2025 said that commitments made by the Government to nature restoration in Wales must be supported by a clear plan for action and delivery backed by the necessary resources. The Committee, made up of representatives of all parties in the Senedd, found a lack of urgency saying: ‘If the Welsh Government is to deliver on its commitments for nature it needs to up its game, because nature can’t wait for it to catch up.’
To remind ourselves of the importance of nature: it is our life support system. Without nature, we humans could not survive. Nature is a complex system made up of all living things together with the chemical and physical structure of the Earth. As far as we know, Earth is the only planet we could freely live on. Anywhere else we would have to carry our life support with us.
Too many people in high and powerful positions prefer to ignore this. They take nature for granted and dismiss concerns for its welfare as a luxury matter that can be dealt with when the ‘economy is fixed’. The economy though is heavily dependent on nature. Nature provides a stable environment for the economy to operate in, it provides the conditions for growing the food economic actors need, it supplies the water they need, the oxygen they need. It supplies the materials the economy needs to function. Without nature there is no economy.
Nature is the bedrock on which the economy is built and nature is under great stress and in places is breaking down. Symptoms of this breakdown are the changing climate caused in part by a buildup of carbon dioxide beyond the capacity of nature to absorb, and the pollution that overwhelms nature’s self cleaning capacity. Also the decline and extinction of species due to the activities of the economy that robs them of their own support system.
If this breakdown continues, and current national and international policies will ensure that it does continue, human beings will pay a very heavy price. Adequate food production will become more difficult, clean water will become scarcer, air will become damaging to health, pests and disease will spread and threaten health. The psychological impact of degrading wildlife will take its toll on mental health.
Much of this has been recognised by the UK and Welsh governments and both have made commitments, but words are cheap. What is urgently needed now, as the Senedd Committee spells out, is action backed by resources. Restoring nature is not a luxury that can wait. We all have a role to play, landowners and farmers, business, government and the general public. We need to find the good will to work together to address the Nature Emergency for our own sakes and that of future generations. Delaying action as the government is doing, is unacceptable.
Mike Shipley January 2025