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Environmental campaigners and researchers are sceptical of the UK government’s plans to strengthen environmental protection measures after the UK leaves the EU.
At an event at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) on Monday, Dr Viviane Gravey said that existing EU environmental laws are a baseline for all member states.
“We always had the ability within the EU to be more ambitious if we really wanted to. Brexit opens up the opportunity to go downward [with environmental standards] which wasn’t there before,” the QUB lecturer said.
The environment is a devolved matter within the regions of the UK, but campaigners here want a UK-wide framework for environmental rules so that standards do not differ across the UK after Brexit.
While largely welcoming the UK government’s plans to include more environmental measures in farm support schemes after Brexit, it was notable how negative many campaigners were about future wider environmental policy.
Their biggest concern is that the UK will no longer be part of the EU institutions that govern existing environmental laws.
In May, Defra Secretary Michael Gove proposed establishing an independent environment agency to hold the government to account on delivering environmental rules and targets after Brexit.
However, campaigners say that the proposed body has limited enforcement powers, and instead of being confined to England, should be UK-wide.
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