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The government’s planning reforms are gathering pace, with the Planning and Infrastructure Bill currently making its way through parliament.
The Bill contains several relevant provisions for the environmental sector, including the introduction of a nature restoration levy and the new Environmental Outcomes Reports (EOR) regime.
On EOR, we continue to engage with government to ensure that robust environmental impact assessment remains a cornerstone of the planning system.
To this end, we have been running dedicated workshops with government planning officials, exploring what’s required from EOR in areas including strategic assessment and landscape, alongside health and social assessment.
In recent months, we have hosted roundtables with parliamentarians to explore the ongoing revision of the Environmental Improvement Plan and the government’s current policy approach to community energy.
We hosted roundtables with:
In partnership with the Environmental Policy Forum, we will also deliver an event – Building green skills: achieving the UK’s climate goals and boosting economic growth – during Net Zero Week in parliament in July.
Ben Goodwin AIEMA
Director of policy and public affairs
We’ve been busy at IEMA, responding to a flood of consultations on biodiversity and natural capital since the end of 2024.
In April, the government launched a further consultation on land use, ahead of publication of a full land-use framework. The framework has been a much-anticipated tool, but the consultation has been disappointing in its scope.
A land-use framework should enable the effective interaction of different spatial policies, including biodiversity net gain (BNG), environmental land management schemes and planning reform (as set out in IEMA’s key recommendations for UK policymakers in 2024).
The government’s consultation has not adequately shown how proposed land-use changes will contribute to the statutory targets in the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP). Indeed, the proposed land changes did not seem sufficient to reach the UK’s national and international commitments in this area.
Any land-use framework must align with planning reform and the emerging Environmental Outcomes Reports regime. Planning and land-use decisions must be based on a shared set of spatial and environmental priorities that reflect statutory targets under the EIP, BNG and local nature recovery strategies.
To aid action and monitoring, a centralised, standardised and open-access data system must underpin the land-use framework. Government could encourage the sharing of privately held land use and biodiversity data (eg, from developers or estate managers, etc) and embed a duty to report spatial outcomes against the framework’s principles.
The final framework is due to be published in 2025. See www.bit.ly/land-use-response for our response.
Lesley Wilson AIEMA
Policy and engagement lead for biodiversity and natural capital
As climate impacts become increasingly material to business risk and opportunity, many organisations are looking to understand – and reduce – the carbon emissions tied to their products and supply chains. For most, scope 3 emissions, particularly those from purchased goods and services, make up the lion’s share of their carbon footprint. Yet this is often the least understood area, frequently calculated using generic, high-level spend-based estimates.
Emissions are not created equal. Two similar products can have vastly different carbon profiles based on sourcing, production methods, transport, and other factors. Relying solely on industry averages can mislead decision-making, distort performance metrics and discourage low-carbon innovation.
That’s why product carbon footprints (PCFs) are becoming the focus for organisations seeking greater granularity, accountability and credibility in their carbon reporting and reduction strategies.
Our newly published paper, An Introduction to Product Carbon Footprints, supports practitioners navigating this shift, providing a practical and accessible entry point to the world of PCFs. The paper includes:
Why now? Demand for product-level emissions data is accelerating. Regulatory developments such as the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation are making PCFs necessary as well as useful.
In parallel, large buyers are increasingly requesting PCFs from suppliers to inform procurement, decarbonisation plans and compliance. And with tools and platforms emerging to support data collection and analysis, barriers to entry are gradually coming down.
This guide is aimed at sustainability professionals, procurement teams, supply chain managers and anyone who has to calculate or understand the emissions associated with purchased products and services. It’s a practical, standards-informed introduction to PCFs.
For more, see www.bit.ly/intro-to-PCFs
Chloë Fiddy
Senior policy and engagement lead for climate change and energy
In March, IEMA’s Impact Assessment Network released the latest volume of the Impact Assessment Outlook Journal, Delivering Proportionality in Impact Assessment.
This edition brings together thought pieces from experts across the sector, exploring why proportionality matters and how we can do better.
Guest editor Nick Giesler has drawn on the expertise of local authority officers, legal specialists, project coordinators and EIA practitioners to highlight practical ways to deliver proportionate assessments and reporting.
At a time when environmental assessment is under public and political scrutiny, this volume offers a timely reframing: environmental assessment is not a blocker to development but a vital enabler. By focusing on proportionate process and outputs, we can improve how we assess, communicate and deliver sustainable outcomes.
The authors share opportunities for refining environmental assessment practice and look at how future approaches, including the introduction of Environmental Outcomes Reports, could help embed proportionality more deeply across the system.
All 24 volumes of the IA Outlook Journal are available on the IEMA website for members to explore key issues and insights from IA practice. If you would like to be notified of future calls for articles for upcoming volumes, make sure you have selected ‘Impact Assessment’ in your member preferences.
For further details, visit www.bit.ly/OutlookJournal24
Rufus Howard FIEMA
Policy and engagement lead for impact assessment
