Ruth Chambers

📺 You can watch the session on Parliament TV
🔗 lnkd.in/ewFmkNC4

📝 We'd love feedback on what we said, what we missed and what we could do better next time.

⏰ Longstanding challenges must be addressed, for example on boosting green skills in key sectors, progressing long delayed laws on peat conservation and deforestation and increasing funding for land managers to play the fullest role in helping us meet the 2030 nature targets.

🦋 A shared view of nature's recovery as a pre-requisite of prosperity, health & well being must be the foundation for strengthened cross-government delivery, with more visible leadership from the PM.

Systemic risks need a joined-up response.

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🚨 The government must now turn words into action, and pick up the pace, with the much anticipated land use framework, circular economy growth plan and 25-year farming road map issued swiftly.

💡This briefing has more detail on these important interlinkages.

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🚀 We covered a lot of ground in our hour long session.

🥣 The committee asked us whether we thought the new plan was better than its predecessor, and what we thought were the key ingredients for successful delivery.

✅ We were united in our headline messages...

Richard Benwell and Ruth Chambers standing together in the House of Commons, under a sign which says 'Hear, Hear!', which is often shouted by MPs to mean 'yes'!

🔍 😌 This is what it looks like to breathe a sigh of relief after giving oral evidence in Parliament!

💚This pm I joined @richardbenwell.bsky.social @wclnews.bsky.social & Livi Elsmore @asthmaandlung.org.uk to give evidence to @commonseac.parliament.uk on the govt's new Environmental Improvement Plan

🎯 Meeting key targets for nature by 2030 is within this government's gift but will it rise to the challenge?

It must act with urgency and put in place other important building blocks without delay – including the land use framework, circular economy growth plan and 25 year farming roadmap.

🔍 The government published a new Environmental Improvement Plan at the start of December. The OEP’s initial view is that while the new plan is more coherent, with greater transparency and increased focus on delivery, there are still gaps and a lack of specificity.

www.theoep.org.uk/sites/defaul...

📉The Office for Environmental Protection has once again found government progress on meeting its environmental goals and commitments is largely off track.

The lack of 'green' in its summary assessment is striking.

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Peat-free legislation is essential to end uncertainty and confusion This post is by Trewin Restorick, founder of the sustainability consultancy Sizzle. Despite repeated government promises to end the sale of peat for horticulture, the necessary legislation has stil…

🌱 Why are we still digging up our equivalent of rainforests - peat bogs - when alternatives exist?

In the latest @green-alliance.org.uk blog, @trewin.bsky.social explains why the government must urgently bring forward a new law to end peat sales in the UK.

greenallianceblog.org.uk/2026/01/08/p...

Lawyers ‘gathering views’ after government throws out all species protection proposals from own scientists A law firm is “gathering views” on the implications for animals like beavers and grey seals of the government rejecting all protected species recommendations from the UK’s wildlife agencies, in a move...

NEW: Lawyers ‘gathering views’ after government throws out all species protection proposals from own scientists

www.endsreport.com/article/1944... with comment from @richardbenwell.bsky.social @jasonreeves80.bsky.social @ruthchambers.bsky.social

What the Planning and Infrastructure Bill tells us about the government’s approach to nature recovery This post is by Beccy Speight, chief executive officer of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

"History tells us that nature is best protected by law, not promises."

Beccy Speight, CEO @rspb.bsky.social, discusses what's at stake with the Planning & Infrastructure Bill now in its final stages ⤵️

In conversation with Chris Packham and experts: are we losing our environmental rights? » Green Alliance Green Alliance is an independent think tank and charity focused on ambitious leadership for the environment

🎧What to know more? Then tune in to learn about the Aarhus Convention, how eroding environmental rights undermines our democratic foundations and which climate crisis film Chris Packham and I have both watched (it's a classic!).

green-alliance.org.uk/podcast/in-c...

UK jeopardises global cooperation by refusing UN findings | Friends of the Earth The UK has "needlessly undermined an important treaty" centred on giving "ordinary people a voice", campaigners say

🚨 Environmental rights are sadly under threat like never before as last week’s meeting of the parties to the Aarhus Convention saw.

📜 This includes the right to participate in how environmental laws are made, topical in light of the controversial planning bill.

friendsoftheearth.uk/latest/uk-je...

In conversation with Chris Packham and experts: are we losing our environmental rights? » Green Alliance Green Alliance is an independent think tank and charity focused on ambitious leadership for the environment

📻 In #TheGreenAlliancePodcast I discuss the erosion of environmental rights in the UK with special guests @chrisgpackham.bsky.social and legal experts.

✅ Despite the role the right to protest has played in shaping our society, we cannot take it for granted.

green-alliance.org.uk/podcast/in-c...

In today's episode of #TheGreenAlliancePodcast, @ruthchambers.bsky.social talks to @chrisgpackham.bsky.social + environment law experts about the need to protect the right to protest in the UK for both democracy & the environment amid growing strain.

Full ep: green-alliance.org.uk/podcast/in-c...

At a crossroads: why Wales must futureproof its new green governance This article was first published on the Institute of Welsh Affairs website. In a world of political uncertainty, democratic checks and balances matter. As we approach the last four months of the si…

Wales is creating a new environmental watchdog after 7 years of waiting - but will it have the teeth it needs?

In our latest blog, @ruthchambers.bsky.social tells the story of a bill racing against time, political uncertainty and the fight to get the details right.

🔁 @iwa-wales.bsky.social

At a crossroads: why Wales must futureproof its new green governance - Institute of Welsh Affairs The new OEGW can fill our environmental governance gap, but it must be given the legal duty and resources to ensure its independence and delivery.

✅ In a world of political uncertainty, democratic checks and balances matter. My thoughts for @iwa-wales.bsky.social on how to future proof green governance in Wales.

www.iwa.wales/agenda/2025/...

What does the Caerphilly by-election tell us about the state of Welsh politics? Last week, a by-election in Caerphilly in South Wales was won by Plaid Cymru. With elections to Senedd Cymru – the Welsh Parliament – just seven months away, this result highlights the political un…

In our latest blog, senior fellow @ruthchambers.bsky.social looks at the rapidly changing political landscape in Wales and what this means for environmental protection.

Read the blog here⤵️

Photo of participants at a roundtable discussion on chemicals pollution with Defra minister Emma Hardy.

🙏 Thank you minister @emmahardymp.bsky.social & chief scientific adviser @evoswami.bsky.social for an engaging discussion on action on chemicals pollution.

💚 It's an area where environmental principles – prevent, rectify at source, precaution, polluter pays – must be at the heart of policy making.

What does the Caerphilly by-election tell us about the state of Welsh politics? Last week, a by-election in Caerphilly in South Wales was won by Plaid Cymru. With elections to Senedd Cymru – the Welsh Parliament – just seven months away, this result highlights the political un…

🌄 The political landscape in Wales is changing rapidly. As parties vie for prominence and power, coalition working seems inevitable, including on the environment.

In such uncertain times, legal certainty and the voice of civil society matters.

👀New blog ⬇️

greenallianceblog.org.uk/2025/10/28/w...

🚥 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗽𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 | Wales stands at a crossroads in both its politics and its environmental ambitions.

@joe-wildlife.bsky.social and I discuss the state of politics and nature in Wales and how proposed new environmental laws should be strengthened in this #GreenAlliancePodcast

🎧 𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻 buff.ly/wrjblXa

Is Labour about to put its historic link with National Parks at risk? At last year’s Labour party conference the prime minister spoke about the beauty and wonder of the Lake District. Visitors to this year’s conference are greeted by six Labour history information bo…

⚡Is Labour about to put its historic link with National Parks at risk? I hope not but it seems this is not an academic question.

👀 All eyes will be on the government amendments to the planning and infrastructure bill, expected mid October.

greenallianceblog.org.uk/2025/09/30/i...

📚 There's a lot of critical environmental decisions piling up on ministers' desks.

🚀 None more so than the environmental improvement plan, which has stalled. Defra Secretary Emma Reynolds must get the new plan out the door and drive its implementation at pace.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

📈 Many thanks for the chance to offer thoughts on whether the government is on track to meet the great green challenges of our time.

🚀A monumental shift will be required to move from planning to delivery.

🔍All eyes will be on the new environmental improvement plan when it appears later this year.

5️⃣ 🔗 Working with her ministers and new permanent secretary Paul Kissack, she must ensure that Defra’s many policy levers work in a unified and complementary way. She has many willing partners and allies. We are very much looking forward to working with her.

4️⃣ 🚀 Emma had a great first week announcing progress on oceans, peat burning and toxic pesticides. She must continue to seize the 'quick wins' waiting in the department's wings eg ending the digging up of peat bogs for garden compost & ridding supermarket shelves of products of damaging deforestation

3️⃣ 📗 A healthy natural world underpins the economy. By spending Defra’s budget well she can restore nature, while reducing flood risk, boosting farmers’ incomes and saving NHS £. The Circular Economy Strategy is one of the best opportunities Defra has to promote economic resilience and productivity.

2️⃣ 🍃 She must champion the environment across government. People want to breathe clean air, drink and swim in clean water, eat healthy and affordable food and experience the joys of nature. Defra's work touches the lives of and matters to millions of people.

1️⃣ ⚡She must instil a laser like focus on delivery, starting with getting the new environmental improvement plan out in October, followed swiftly by the land use framework, a plan to protect 30 per cent of land and sea for nature by 2030 and implementing the new SPS agreement with the EU by 2027.