Biodiversity Net Gain – The Impact of New Guidance
Date & Time: | February 28, 2024 8:30 am | Add to Calendar (.ics) |
Venue: | Virtual Event |
In September 2023, the Government set out next steps on plans for new housing, commercial and infrastructure developments to be “nature positive”. DEFRA confirmed that developers in England will be required to deliver 10% “Biodiversity Net Gain” from January 2024 onwards, though the launch date has now been pushed back to February.
Our panellists will discuss the impact of the new regulatory guidance and the practical steps being taken in industry to implement it. We will look at some examples of successful interventions, drawing key learnings and insights on the challenges including from an investment and financing perspective.
Forum chair – Ami Kotecha, Co-Founder & Group President, Amro Partners.
Forum member – Emma Waterhouse, Associate, Investments, Boreal IM.
Moderator:
Jon Dearsley, Rural Director and Head of Natural Capital at Savills
Jon is Head of Natural Capital and advises rural clients on all areas of ESG. He has particular focus on carbon net zero strategies and biodiversity net gain. Jon also leads Cirencester’s Food and Farming team.
Jon graduated from the University of Reading with a first class honours degree in agricultural business management in 2009 and joined the business as a graduate. He specialises in providing practical advice to farms and rural estates on the environmental considerations of land and built property. Jon lives in the Cotswolds with his wife and two children.
Panellists:
Dr Tony Juniper CBE, Chairman, Natural England
Tony Juniper is Chair of Natural England. Before taking up this role in April 2019 he was Executive Director for Advocacy and Campaigns at WWF-UK, a Fellow with the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and President of the Wildlife Trusts. Until January 2018 he was an independent sustainability and environment advisor, including as Special Advisor with The Prince of Wales’s International Sustainability Unit.
He speaks and writes widely on conservation and sustainability themes. He’s the author of many books, including the multi-award winning bestseller ‘What has nature ever done for us?’ published in 2013. The Ladybird guide to climate change, co-authored with HRH The Prince of Wales and Emily Shuckburgh, was published in January 2017. His latest book, ‘Rainforest‘, was published in April 2018.
Tony began his career as an ornithologist, working with Birdlife International. From 1990 he worked at Friends of the Earth, initially leading the campaign for tropical rainforests, and from 2003 to 2008 was the organisation’s Executive Director. From 2000 to 2008 he was Vice Chair of Friends of the Earth International.
He was the first recipient of the Charles and Miriam Rothschild medal (2009) and was awarded honorary Doctor of Science degrees from the Universities of Bristol and Plymouth (2013). In 2017 he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).
Morgan Taylor – Director, Greengage
Morgan leads the Nature team at Greengage Environmental Ltd. He specialises in biodiverse green infrastructure design, natural capital assessment, nature-related sustainable finance and complex ecological assessment working to deliver overall Biodiversity and Environmental Net Gain (BNG and ENG). He has sat on the panel for the UKGBC’s Nature Based Solution Steering Group, CIEEM’s Action 2030 Climate Change response group as well as the British Standard for BNG working group, among others. He was listed on the ENDS Power List 2023 as one of the UK’s 100 most influential environmental professionals.
Phoebe Tucker – Associate, Green Finance Institute
Phoebe Tucker is a Nature Associate at the Green Finance Institute and joined the team in December 2021.
At GFI, Phoebe has been focused on the acceleration of the UK’s supply of nature-based projects through the design and development of the Investment Readiness Toolkit. She has conducted interviews with project developers, landholders, buyers, investors and other market actors to identify common considerations on projects’ journey to Investment Readiness and write case studies to share learnings. Alongside this work, she is an advisor and assessor to the Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund (NEIRF) in England and the Facility for Investment Ready Nature in Scotland (FIRNS). Prior to joining GFI, Phoebe worked in commercial banking for three years at NatWest, where she specialized in strategy development and the launch of transformational programmes.
This is a vitual event, and you can register via this link to the Savills portal: https://savills.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ISUTCBBSRwS-QYA9NTIBGA