Thread by @UKandEU

Today’s #ThursdayThread revisits the third article in our #UKICELongRead series on #Brexit and the #environment by @CharlieBEU. 📖

EU membership gradually transformed the UK into an important player on environmental issues.

Yet the environment barely featured in the #Brexit referendum. 🗳

The environment has shot up the political agenda recently.

The climate strikes and Extinction Rebellion protests have gained increased attention.

And in the 2019 UK general election, the environment was one of the top three issues for a quarter of voters.

#Covid has been a setback for environmental policies

It has prompted a surge in single use plastics and litter, and #socialdistancing means fewer people are using public transport while the use of cars has recovered to near pre-Covid levels.

The government has been sending mixed signals on the environment.

It has made a rhetorical commitment to a ‘Green #Brexit’, but there is scepticism about its willingness and ability to deliver on this soundbite.

So what can we expect in the post-#Brexit era on UK environmental policy?

There are three key challenges that the government faces: governance, the UK internal market and trade policy.

First, the UK needs to replace or replicate the work done by EU bodies in the design, implementation and enforcement of environmental policy.

Yet this is complicated by the second issue: the UK internal market – environmental policy is a devolved matter.

The Scottish and Welsh governments have indicated a desire to align with EU environmental standards in future while the UK government does not intend to do the same in England.

Third, there is trade policy.

If the UK allows the import of US (and other) products produced under lower environmental standards, this could pressure the UK to lower its own standards or face UK farmers struggling to compete.

Looking ahead there are some litmus tests that will indicate how seriously the government takes the environment

First, the delayed national infrastructure strategy could be used to demonstrate that the government is serious about funding a green post-#Covid recovery

Second, future trade deals should include environmental guarantees that existing standards will not be traded off.

Third, the government needs to throw its full weight behind successful management of the postponed international climate change meeting #COP26.

Lip service to environmental ideals is all very well

But a low carbon transition that protects biodiversity and deliver clean air requires considered but ambitious policies from serious politicians who are prepared to co-operate with like-minded governments.

This is just a summary, the full #UKICELongRead has so much more on #Brexit, #Covid and the #environment

Check it out here 🔻
ukandeu.ac.uk/brexits-implic…