Climate change has seared itself into daily life this July. A new average global temperature record was set multiple times last week. Yet ambitious plans for green development – from the EU’s Green Deal, to the Labour Party’s £28bn a year green investment pledge – have recently shown signs of wilting.
In Brussels the fight for nature’s recovery has intensified in recent months. A Nature Restoration Law that will require states to set binding targets for the protection and restoration of their biodiversity was passed by the European Parliament on Wednesday 12 July, but only by a slim margin: 336 votes for, to 300 against.