Government urged to put climate and nature at heart of economic policy

Wildlife charity WWF and insurance company Aviva have urged the government to make climate and nature goals central to economic policy and regulations.

Ahead of the Queen’s Speech, the pair have published a paper mapping out the next steps the government must take to tackle the climate crisis.

The report argues that the onus should not be put on businesses to achieve net zero and a whole economic approach is required to meet the goal.

WWF and Aviva have suggested the government needs to introduce its own transition plan and align public spending and policy with net zero.

Tanya Steele, WWF’s CEO said: ‘WWF and Aviva share the same view – that the world still has time to avoid the worst impacts of a climate catastrophe, but only if all of us, especially governments and businesses, take immediate action.

‘Shaping our net-zero future will create jobs and protect and restore the environment but for that to happen the forthcoming Green Finance Strategy must include a coherent transition plan for the whole of the UK economy.’

The report recommended the government embed net zero into core economic and financial decision-making processes and regularly update a UK economy-wide net zero transition plan.

The private sector should also have a statutory objectives, the Companies Act, FCA and DWP rules should be amended and regulatory guidance should be developed in line with scientific guidance.

The report also said businesses and government should also commit to protecting and restoring nature.

Nature and climate should be embedded within UK regulatory and legislative architecture, by integrating it into Sustainable Disclosure Requirements (SDR) and the UK Green Taxonomy, requiring all principal financial regulators to explicitly incorporate nature-related financial risks into their activities.

Amanda Blanc, Aviva Group CEO said: ‘Everyone in the UK will be touched by the climate crisis, so all of us depend on shifting the economy to net zero as soon as possible. Preventing the worst impacts of climate change will take all businesses developing ambitious, consistent transition plans to get us to a low carbon future.

‘But that can’t happen in isolation – a whole of economy approach to transition is needed, with Government setting the direction. Our joint report with WWF sets out some concrete steps for how to achieve this.’

Photo by Gonzalo Facello