Nature Positive National Sectoral Pathways and Policy Recommendations

Descriptions

Please read the ITT word doc for full information. Why WWF-UK needs this project to be carried out: •To date, the UK government has made important commitments to reach Net Zero and Nature Positive targets by passing the UK Environment Act 2021 and the Climate Change Act. However, the UK government needs to produce a policy framework to fully implement the UK Environment Act 2021 and guide the economy through a net zero and nature positive transition. •Much work has already been done to set out net zero transition pathways for different sectors of the economy, both globally and in the UK, which has helped companies and financial institutions to understand what they need to align with in their own transition, and what policies are required to support this transition. For example, the net zero pathways developed by the UK Climate Change Committee, have led to major reforms and reviews in multiple sectors of the economy, including: construction, heating and housing, transportation, energy, and local authorities. •However, we do not have a similar understanding of what a transition to a nature positive economy would look like. Mapping out what it would take for different sectors in the UK to become nature positive, would help companies and government understand what this transition may look like and how to align their activities and policies with these pathways. It will thus help businesses to break down high-level environmental targets into company level ones, in a way that enables them to operationalise them and act upon them. And it would inform the development of targeted policy recommendations for the UK government to support and incentivise the necessary transition by the private sector. •As many companies and financial institutions will already be looking at sectoral pathways to net zero to guide their strategies, how nature-positive pathways can be integrated with/build upon this existing work in net zero should be core to this analysis. Sectoral nature-positive pathways should be designed to be easily integrated with net zero pathways and transition planning. 4KEY OBJECTIVES The main aim of the project is to create and pilot an approach for developing nature positive sectoral pathways to be integrated into net zero sectoral pathways in the UK and to provide policy recommendations to the UK government to effectively guide the economy through the transitions. Exam questions: 1.What are the transitions that key sectors of the UK economy need to undergo to align with the targets set out in the Environment Act 2021 and the CCC Path to Net Zero? 2.What policy actions are required to effectively guide the UK economy to fully align with the Environment Act 2021 and the CCC Path to Net Zero - including economic and fiscal incentives, regulations, and reporting and target-setting frameworks, such as SBTN and TNFD?