The new parliamentary session which starts on 11 May will be a crucial one for the environment. In this ‘super year’ of major international nature and climate summits, parliament will debate and pass the first dedicated Environment Bill for over twenty years.
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This post is by Zoe Avison, policy analyst at Green Alliance and was originally published on Wildlife and Countryside Link’s blog.
Taking action to reverse nature decline now will offer good jobs for a green recovery. As we surface from the pandemic, minds will turn from rescue to recovery. Emergency packages to support people and businesses will give way to more strategic decisions about the type of economy we want on the other side. The economic impacts of the pandemic are not evenly spread and a recovery that levels up the country is a major government priority. For this reason, we commissioned WPI Economics to research the link between levelling up and jobs in the nature sector, to show why green jobs should be at the heart of the government’s recovery plans.
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This post is by Georgina Holmes-Skelton, head of government affairs at the National Trust.
The environmental principles set out in EU treaties and law were the bedrock of the UK’s legal framework for protecting the environment while it was a member of the EU. Now we need to decide what our own version of these crucial legal foundations will look like in UK domestic law. This presents a challenge to ensure that the protections we have are not undermined or diminished, but also a rare and crucial opportunity.
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This post by was originally published on Business Green.
Tax is one of the most powerful tools the government has at its disposal to address the challenges of the 21st century. In combination with the right regulation, targets and strategies, taxes could be used to shape a sustainable economy, giving people and businesses alike the incentives they need to do the right thing.
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This post is by Tom Burke, chairman and founding director of E3G and former director of Green Alliance (1982-91).
Fifty years ago, extending the rule of law over the then wild frontier of the British environment was the main challenge facing environmental campaigners. Post-Brexit, the challenge we now face is protecting the rule of EU environmental law from populist politicians.
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The UK’s announcement that it will accept the Climate Change Committee’s recommendation to set a new legally binding climate target to reduce emissions by 78 per cent by 2035 should be welcomed with open arms. This target, which will sit alongside the 2030 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) promise to cut emissions by 68 per cent by 2030, is especially significant as it includes international aviation and shipping (IAS).
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This post is by Baroness Parminter, the chair of the new Environment and Climate Change Committee.
We have begun a crucial decade. The environmental, social and economic impacts of climate change, and using the earth’s resources faster than they can be replenished, are well known. These will be the ten years that determine whether governments, industries and citizens can change direction in time to avert global climate and environmental disaster. The situation could not be more urgent.
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Since Brexit, environmental policy is increasingly being implemented via statutory instruments (SIs), which have been used to transpose EU law into UK law. They cover almost every aspect of the environment, from chemicals to wildlife to fisheries.
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Our dynamic, living planet is on a journey: the UK government has made it clear it wants the destination to be an environment in a better state than we found it, a welcome ambition which is embedded in the government’s long term environment strategy. But clear signposts will be needed to ensure that we don’t lose our way and we can navigate the choices and challenges that lie ahead.
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Today’s budget provided around £130 million in new green public investment, mainly focused on industrial decarbonisation. The chancellor has provided new money for a hub in Holyhead to generate hydrogen for use in HGVs; an ‘energy transition zone’ to move the North Sea oil and gas industry towards greener fuels and technologies; and some new innovation investment for floating offshore wind and energy storage tech. He also announced two new finance mechanisms to encourage private investment in green spending: a new green sovereign bond and a green retail national investment and savings product. Changes are afoot at the Bank of England as well – including a new ‘net zero’ remit for the Monetary Policy Committee – although there’s some confusion as to what that will mean in practice.
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