Halting and reversing the loss of nature by 2030

The Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee (‘the Committee’) is undertaking an inquiry on Biodiversity - halting and reversing the loss of nature by 2030.

Report: The Committee published its report: Halting and reversing the loss of nature by 2030 (PDF 2.4MB) on 20 January 2025.

Response: The Welsh Government responded (PDF 322KB) to the Committee’s report on 3 March 2025.

Plenary debate: A debate was held in plenary on 7 May 2025.

Background

In December 2022 at a Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biodiversity (COP15), the UK Government joined the international commitment to halt and reverse the loss of nature by 2030, and achieve recovery by 2050.

As a devolved policy area, the Welsh Government has committed to the COP15 targets. It is proposing to introduce statutory biodiversity targets via a Nature Bill (anticipated to be introduced in the final year of this Senedd term). The White Paper to the Bill proposes an overarching target to:

Reverse the decline in biodiversity with an improvement in the status of species and ecosystems by 2030 and their clear recovery by 2050.

In anticipation of COP15, the Welsh Government launched a Biodiversity Deep Dive to explore the 30 by 30 target, which concluded in October 2022. A group of experts and practitioners, identified key themes and recommendations for actions to support 30 by 30.

The Committee is particularly interested in the following:

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>>>The effectiveness of current policies / funds / statutory duties in halting and reversing the loss of nature by 2030;

>>>The effectiveness of current policies / funds / statutory duties in halting and reversing the loss of nature by 2030;

>>>Progress towards implementing the Biodiversity Deep Dive recommendations;

>>>Current arrangements for monitoring biodiversity; and

>>>New approaches needed to halt and reverse the loss of nature by 2030.

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Our approach

In order to inform this work the Committee will hold a consultation over the summer and oral evidence sessions in the autumn term.

The output from the Committee’s work will be shared with the Welsh Government.