COMMENT: Barbara, Baroness Young of Old Scone, is chairman of the Woodland Trust, a former CE of the Environment Agency and RSPB and a former chairman of English Nature.
ENVIRONMENTAL law makes up more than 25 per cent of all EU law so
Brexit will be a major influence in the future of our environmental standards and their enforcement, writes Barbara, Baroness Young of Old Scone.
The EU has been, for the most part, a good thing for improving the environment in the UK. It has, in some curious fashion, allowed ministers to be braver in the setting of the EU in agreeing higher standards than they probably would have been in their home countries, a sort of safety in numbers thing.
READ MORE: Beyond Brexit: Scotland could become 'dirty man of Europe' again
It has enabled a pooling of expertise between member states and the Commission.
Above all, it has developed a monitoring and enforcement process with some teeth, with member states failing to achieve EU standards eventually to be found in infraction and fined real money and with the European Court of Justice accessible to organisations and individuals who wanted to take on poor performance.
The result has been cleaner water and air (though there is still a way
to go on the latter) and safer beaches. Our sites of importance for biodiversity have stronger protection.
We used to see 15 per cent of our Sites of Special Scientific Interest damaged or declining in quality every year and now we see less than 0.5 per cent in that position.
We have shared and effective controls on the use and development of chemicals in the environment. Our disposal of waste is safer and more sustainable. And more.
All this, both standards and the monitoring and enforcement processes are put at risk by Brexit. It is vital the Great Repeal Bill process, by which legislation is to be moved across to UK law in a sort of drag and drop process, ensures we set as high standards for our environmental performance.
It is rumoured between 20-30 per cent of this legislation simply can’t be moved across as it is “inoperable” once we have left the EU, mostly because it depends on EU institutions or enforcement processes that will not apply to us.
We urgently need to find a way by which failure to meet environmental standards still has consequences for us as a standalone nation.
READ MORE: Beyond Brexit: Scotland could become 'dirty man of Europe' again
How about a body like the Climate Change Committee, with its independent powers to set objectives and hold government accountable for putting forward and delivering plans to achieve these objectives?
The UK after Brexit would be leading the world in its sustainability and environmental commitment and its belief in clear environmental standards being good for businesses.
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