Yesterday, the Crown Estate launched an updated ambition and delivery plan for nature recovery across its portfolio of land and sea by 2030, in a further step aimed at strengthening its environmental stewardship role.
The launch was celebrated in Parliament, at a reception hosted by P4P Chair Baroness Hayman, who reflected on the openness of the Crown Estate team in engaging with Peers who successfully advocated for the government to ensure statutory commitments to climate and nature targets were included in the Crown Estate Bill. She said the body, which manages a huge portfolio of rural land, urban centres, coastline and the UK seabed, is too important and too influential not to have these commitments.
Baroness Hayman said she was impressed by the process being undertaken by the Crown Estate to fulfil its different responsibilities to develop infrastructure, generate value for the public and protect our precious natural assets. To manage these trade-offs and come to the right outcome, she said we have to be very smart and very open with people to bring them along, and welcomed the headway the Crown Estate is making in developing a blueprint for this.
Dan Labbad, CEO of the Crown Estate, said we are at a pivotal moment for nature, and as a body they are committed to and relentless about achieving nature recovery. He said it isn’t possible to deliver on their mandate to return a profit for the future, unless they think about these issues and drive meaningful change. He said the Crown Estate Bill will allow it to access credit which will be a game changer in enabling them to invest in nature across its portfolio.
The event concluded with keynote speech from the Rt Hon Steve Reed MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. He reflected that we have become one of the most nature depleted countries on Earth and we need to turn the tide on this. He said the government is thinking about how best to manage the demands on our marine environment, including making the UK a clean power superpower, and will work with the Crown Estate to ensure future development runs alongside protecting and enhancing our biodiversity.
The Crown Estates ‘Ambition for Nature Recovery’ and Nature Recovery Update are available here
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