National Parks and the Climate Emergency Report

National Parks are our finest landscapes with the highest level of protection. Their statutory purposes are to conserve and enhance wildlife, cultural heritage and natural beauty (the “conservation purpose”), and to promote opportunities for public enjoyment and understanding of their special qualities (the “recreation purpose”). There is also a duty on National Park Authorities (NPAs) to seek to foster the social and economic wellbeing of the local communities within the National Park when pursuing these purposes. There are ten National Parks in England, covering almost 10% of the country and three in Wales, covering 20% of the country.

Campaign for National Parks wants to ensure all these National Parks are, not only, fully equipped to meet the challenges posed by climate change but are also able to play a leading role in combating climate breakdown. This report examines what NPAs are currently doing and highlights further actions that NPAs, Government and other stakeholders need to take. It is based on discussions with NPA members and officers and relevant information published by the NPAs and others. It is not intended to be a comprehensive assessment of all the climate-related activity in the Parks but instead provides an overview of key activities at a particular period in time. This is a rapidly changing area and inevitably that will be some developments that we won’t have been able to include. We are also aware that there are some relevant policy areas such as waste that we have not been able to address for reasons of space and time.