Implications of Biodiversity Net Gain provisions of the Environment Act 2021 for commercial operations and planning developments.
Part 6 of the Environment Act 2021 introduced significant new provisions which will require mandatory 10% Biodiversity Net Gain to be demonstrated as a requirement for most planning applications.
This workshop details some of the main provisions of the Act regarding Biodiversity Net Gain, biodiversity metrics, and their implications in relation to commercial planning applications. But today’s new planning obligations are only part of a wider government and legal response to a global biodiversity crisis threatening a million species with extinction. This course aims to inform participants of changes which will affect their businesses, but also to make them aware of the drivers for other policy on biodiversity.
The new planning obligations will have direct and indirect impacts for different teams within organisations. The format of this workshop enables companies to efficiently brief multiple, cross-functional, teams in a single session, building awareness of the main changes, risks, opportunities, and other key implications of the Act.
The workshop can also be tailored to focus on the specific contexts, issues, objectives, and training needs that are most relevant to the individual companies and organisations.
Agenda
The course covers:
Biodiversity – Overview and International Context
The first session takes a wider look at the biodiversity problem and how it is being addressed in international negotiations, including the COP26 and COP27 climate negotiations, the forthcoming meeting of parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity and the links between biodiversity and climate change.
Biodiversity and the UK
The next session considers the state of nature in the UK, why it is one of the worst in Europe, and the policy response this has generated from economic and other regulators and government.
Legal Response
The third session runs through the new biodiversity provisions in the Environment Act 2021, the relationship with other species legislation, On-site and Off-site Biodiversity Net Gain and Statutory Credits.
Biodiversity Net Gain and Implications for Your Company
The fourth interactive session will apply some of the general principles of the new legislation to individual companies, considering both regulatory risks and potential opportunities.
Course review, Q & A, and group discussion
Who would benefit from attending this course?
The workshop is designed for organisations that need to make commercial planning applications and will be directly relevant to their commercial planning departments, legal teams, asset managers, and estates, facility, or property management teams, amongst others.
The practical insights and takeaways from the course will be of benefit to anyone who needs to understand:
- the implications that the 10% Biodiversity Net Gain requirement will have for commercial planning applications
- how Biodiversity Net Gain is quantified
- what the new Biodiversity Metric is and how it works
- mechanisms through which developers can achieve biodiversity gain objectives
- the context of the Environment Act 2021 provisions and other drivers for biodiversity policy
It will also help delegates think ahead to possible future regulation on biodiversity and to ensure that it is reflected in company planning and operations.
Presenter
William Wilson has over 25 years’ experience working as a senior lawyer on environmental and energy laws and regulation within government, private practice and consultancy. He has presented Biodiversity Net Gain training for major utilities.
His practice has included UK and EU environmental and energy laws and work on water, waste, air quality, industrial emissions, chemicals regulation, radioactive substances and environmental regulation. He worked as a senior lawyer at the UK Department of the Environment/DETR/Defra, has worked with all of the devolved administrations in the UK, and has undertaken legislative drafting projects in the UK, EU, Southeast Asia, Middle East and for a Crown Dependency.
He is the author of ‘Making Environmental Laws Work – Law and Policy in the UK and USA’, and he is currently Consultant Editor for Halsbury’s Laws volumes on Water and Waterways. His recent work includes in-depth coverage of climate change, Green Recovery, energy transition, net zero, and the full implications of the COP26 and COP27 climate negotiations for businesses and future policy.
Teaching method
This 2 hour course is delivered as an in-house workshop at the clients’ premises. It can be divided into separate sessions to make it easier to record and fit into in-house company training materials. We will customise the programme content, in discussion with clients, to address client-specific circumstances, potential opportunities, and regulatory risks. Options for detailed customisation to incorporate key objectives, specific issues, policies, case-studies, or follow-on training can also be provided.
If you would like to discuss the possibility of arranging an in-house or customised course, please contact Ben Robinson at bjr@prospectlaw.co.uk or (+44) (0)7869 307437
