The Environment and the UK's Environment

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In 2018, ministers came up with an ambitious 25-year plan for the UK's environment. The environmental improvement plan is meant to be a blueprint for the next 15 years. It covers everything from species loss to water quality and access to green spaces. But has there been any progress in five years? We're also seeing confusion potentially over some of its existing regulations.

This week the government published a major environmental improvement plan for England. It has pledged that every household will be within a 15-minute walk of green space or water, the restoration of 1.2m acres of wildlife habitat, and that sewage spills will be tackled with upgrades to wastewater treatment works. Madeleine Finlay speaks to the Guardian’s environment editor, Fiona Harvey, about the state of nature in the UK, what this plan promises to do, and whether it’s ambitious enough to halt and reverse damage done.. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod