Keir Starmer’s entrance into Number 10 Downing Street as head of the first UK Labour government in 14 years marks a new dawn for global action to deliver for our precious natural environment.
Keir Starmer’s entrance into Number 10 Downing Street as head of the first UK Labour government in 14 years marks a new dawn for global action to deliver for our precious natural environment.
This is good news for all those who care about halting and restoring biodiversity loss, ending deforestation and tackling climate change.
Political failure by previous UK administrations has left Britain to become one of the world’s most nature depleted countries. Nearly 50% of our bird species and 25% of our mammal species are at risk of extinction. Our national parks are experiencing decline. Not to mention that many of our rivers, lakes and seas are polluted with sewage.
But voters in Britain have chosen change. The Labour Party which now holds a 172 seat majority in the House of Commons has been elected on a promise to improve responsible access to nature, expand nature rich-habitats such as wetlands and peat bogs, take steps to clean up our water, meet UK Environment Act targets and improve animal welfare by banning trail hunting and the import of hunting trophies.
In his first statement as Environment Secretary, Steve Reed has already announced that one of his five core priorities will be to ensure nature’s recovery. Along with David Lammy, the new Foreign Secretary, and Ed Miliband, the UK’s Energy Secretary, this incoming Labour government will place an emphasis on greater cooperation for ambitious climate and environmental action at the heart of its foreign policy reset.
In an increasingly hostile, confrontational and multipolar world this is important.
Underpinning this intent to foster improved collaboration between the UK and others on climate and nature is a suite of further policy commitments. The new government has pledged to reappoint a UK climate envoy, ratify the Global Oceans Treaty, create a clean power alliance to accelerate the global energy transition alongside becoming the first G7 producing nation to end new oil and gas licenses and to maintain the UK’s commitment to its own £11.6bn climate finance target.
In particular the promise to move away from new oil and gas is hugely beneficial for ocean life, underwater habitats and rebuilding UK credibility as a trusted partner on the world stage. Many sites for North Sea fossil fuel drilling overlap with Marine Protected Areas, threatening important ecosystems, and therefore contradicting the UK’s commitment to The Global Biodiversity Plan (previously known as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework) to protect 30% of land and sea by 2030. Moving away from new oil and gas demonstrates the new government’s commitment not just to the promises made at COP15 in Montreal but also those made at COP28 in Dubai for countries to “transition away from fossil fuels”. This will be a world leading move that should be celebrated.
With the upcoming United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, COP16, fast approaching the UK Labour government is well placed to work with Colombia towards achieving success at the summit. This critical meeting will take place just five years before the world must meet its agreed north star of halting and reversing the loss of biodiversity. Ahead of the meeting countries must indicate through the releasing of National Targets and National Biodiversity Strategy Action Plans (NBSAPs) how they’re going to support the achievement of the Biodiversity Plan.
This new UK Labour government will be working relentlessly to ensure a timely release of its own NBSAP and work to leverage ambition from other governments at this important moment for nature.
The actions that governments take in the remainder of this decade will have enormous consequences. Their decisions will help to decide if species survive or become extinct, if habitats are protected or become irreversibly damaged and whether the world we inhabit today will be protected for generations to come.
Members of Congress should be confident that this new UK government will be held to account by the most environmentally aware and ambitious cohort of cross-party parliamentarians I have ever seen in my 27 years in the House of Commons.
Together we will ensure the new government takes the necessary action to stand up for nature.
By the Honorable Barry Gardiner, MP
Barry Gardiner is a British politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Brent North from 1997 until the seat’s abolition in 2024 and Brent West since 2024. He is a member of the Labour Party. Gardiner served in Tony Blair’s New Labour government from April 2004 to June 2007 as a junior minister in the Northern Ireland Office, Department of Trade and Industry and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs respectively. After holding junior positions on the Official Opposition frontbench under Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn, Gardiner served in Corbyn’s Shadow cabinet as Shadow Energy and Climate Change Secretary from June to July 2016. He subsequently served as Shadow International Trade Secretary and Shadow Minister for International Climate Change until returning to the backbenches in April 2020.
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