England ‘seen as world leading on nature-friendly farming at Cop16’

England’s farming subsidy reforms that aim to benefit nature are considered “world leading” by other countries at the UN biodiversity summit, UK officials have said.

Tony Juniper, chairman of Natural England which advises the Government on the environment, said there has been “a lot of interest” in the country’s nature policies at Cop16, which has entered its second week in Cali, Colombia.

Officials said they have been sharing England’s experience of introducing nature-friendly farming subsidies as well as its “biodiversity net gain” rules that require developers to boost habitats as part of their projects.

However, it comes amid reports Chancellor Rachel Reeves is considering a £100 million cut to funding for nature-friendly farming as she seeks to save billions in the Budget on Wednesday.

Speaking as the summit entered its second week, Mr Juniper said he has been “quite struck by the interest in what we’re doing in England here on the global stage”.

Under environmental land management schemes (Elms), the Environment Department (Defra) has been phasing out EU direct payments to farmers based on land area, and replacing them with schemes based on delivering environmental outcomes alongside food production.

Countries have also been showing interest in England’s “biodiversity net gain” rules that require developers to increase overall habitat for nature by 10% as part of their projects, the officials said.

Mr Juniper said: “(This) reveals the importance of leadership by countries at home in terms of what that then does for galvanising action at the international level and then feeding that back through to what countries will do individually.

“Because at the end of the day, those global targets will only be met if countries individually step up to the mark.”

The Natural England chairman said these policies show that England and the UK “can be offering some leadership on the global stage”.

“If we show more of that, we can be inspiring the world to do more as well,” he said.

But asked about whether cuts to nature-friendly farming in the Budget would impact the UK’s leadership on the issue, he said: “I don’t know what will be said on that subject this week, so can’t really comment on that.

“But what I do know is that our Secretary of State is utterly committed to ensuring that agriculture and nature are increasingly synergistic with one another.

“I know that he’s made a robust case to be able to maintain the funding that we need to be able to do that.

“In a country like England, where we have 70% of the land area in agriculture, it’s very clear that if we are going to have a reasonable chance of meeting the 2030 targets, then farming needs to be front and centre in the response that we craft.”

A UK official later added that any decision on the funding in the Budget would be unlikely to affect the UK’s negotiation hand at the nature Cop.

“I can honestly say that the UK’s position on farm subsidy reform is completely world leading and every time I walk around the room it is the first thing often that people ask me about,” they said.

Environment Secretary Steve Reed is set to arrive at Cop16 on Tuesday as countries continue talks on progress towards the goals of the landmark Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) agreed by nations at Cop15 in 2022.

Mr Juniper said this nature Cop has seen a “different” and “exciting” energy, driven by a new level of participation from stakeholders such as the private sector and indigenous communities.

According to the UN’s first official assessment of international efforts, released on Monday, countries have made some headway on the KMGBF target to protect 30% of Earth’s nature by 2030 but they are “not moving nearly far or fast enough” to meet the goal.

In the UK, environmental groups have repeatedly warned that the country is at risk of missing its legally binding national “30 by 30” target.

Mr Juniper said: “Here in Cali, we are now one quarter of the way through the delivery period we have – the eight years between ’22 and ’30”.

“And I think it’s fair to say that if you look across the world we haven’t yet made a quarter of the progress needed to meet those 2030 goals.

“Therefore this meeting is absolutely critical in adding momentum and ambition for countries to take home to deploy on efforts that are needed.”