An influential committee of MPs has published a damning report cataloguing the current government's poor performance on environmental issues.

The government has been given several red cards in the Environmental Audit Committee's 'Environmental Scorecard report', published on Tuesday. The report, which used a traffic light system to assess the government's performance on different areas of environment policy, will come as a blow to the coalition David Cameron claimed would be "the greenest ever".

With less than nine months to go until the general election, the Government has been given a 'red card' for its efforts to reduce air pollution, protect biodiversity and prevent flooding. The report was released as the major political parties prepare for their respective party conferences, where manifestos will be set ahead of the 2015 election.

The National Audit Office (NAO), which published reviews of environmental protection performance in July 2010, shortly after the coalition came to power, then again in June 2014, flagged up concerns in three areas in particular (biodiversity, flooding and air quality).

NAO suggested in June that "The information… available suggests total spend on environmental protection as we define it in this report has probably declined since 2010-11."

The EAC report assessed the same ten areas as the NAO investigation. It graded the same three areas of environmental protection as 'Red' (Deterioration since 2010), and the remaining seven as 'Amber' (Unsatisfactory progress).

The areas where government environment policy was judged to have deteriorated most severely are:

Air Pollution

Emissions of a number of airborne pollutants increased in 2013, after holding steady between 2010 and 2012 and having been in decline before then.

The UK also failed to meet targets for nitrogen dioxide pollution in 34 of the 43 zones specified in an EU directive from 2012, which has led to the European Commission launching infraction proceedings against the UK. According to Defra, Greater London and two other areas of the country will not likely be compliant with current legislation until 2030 at the earliest.

Nitrogen dioxide is predominantly produced by road transport and industry.

EAC Chair Joan Walley commented, "A whole generation of young people in our cities will potentially have their health impaired by pollution before the Government meets air quality safety standards. That is not acceptable. We need to see much more urgent action in this area and we will be looking at this area in more detail when we publish the results of our inquiry later this year."

Biodiversity

The Government's Biodiversity 2020 Indicators set targets for biodiversity to be achieved by 2020. Defra's first assessment of progress against the Indicators in 2013 showed that there had been improvements in 13 areas, whilst 13 showed deterioration and there had been little change in a further 11. There was insufficient data to report on a number of other areas.

Meanwhile, data from other sources shows that key wildlife including animals, insects and habitats continue to decline in the UK.

Flooding and coastal protection

Climate change appears to be driving an increase in extreme weather, including sudden heavy rainfall, and rising sea-levels which will put pressure on coastal defences and some low-lying land, as seen with flooding throughout Southern England between Christmas 2013 and February this year.

The EAC report suggested that more needs to be done to protect those in at-risk areas. Although the Coalition claims that it has spent more than any previous government on flooding measures, the figures used by former environment secretary Owen Paterson and later Communities Secretary Eric Pickles to support this have been called into question.

Farm groups have also called for more to be done to protect farmland in future flooding scenarios.

Conclusions

The Committee called for the creation of new legal commitments to protect the environment, to be overseen by a new ‘Office for Environmental Responsibility’ to ensure all Government policies are compatible with those commitments.

Based on its findings, the Environmental Audit Committee recommended implementing an overarching Environmental Strategy, to set principles and priorities and facilitate communication between local and central government and the wider community. This strategy, the EAC said, should work across traditional areas of government policy and include clear environmental assessments and look for data gaps which could be filled to provide a clearer picture of environmental health.

The independent 'Office for Environmental Responsibility', which would have responsibility for:

• Reviewing the Environment Strategy, as recommended by the committee
• Advising Government on appropriate targets;
• Advising Government on policies, both those in Government programmes and new ones that could be brought forward to support the environment;
• Advising Government on whether resources (in both central and local government) are adequate for delivering the Strategy; and
• Monitoring and publishing performance against the Strategy and its targets.

Joan Walley added, "Effective action on environmental protection is essential, both during the current Parliament and beyond. Parties should therefore be considering credible environmental protection in their manifestos. I want them to use our report as both a wake-up call and a template for the measured that need to be put forward. Consistent action by successive Governments will help ensure that the benefits of nature are available to future generations as much as they are to ours."

The full report is available to read here