1970s Britain Its air is choked, rivers filthy, beaches slick with sewage Acid rain falls Since then, EU regulations have driven green progress But Brexit means our future lies outside the bloc Will Britain become 'the dirty man of Europe' once again?

摘要

The UK government has an ambition to "leave our environment in a better state than we found it". But can it be trusted to do so? It is a question that cuts to the heart of a four-year debate about UK environmental protection and regulation as intimate ties with the EU are cut. However, whatever happens in the last throes of negotiations, 31 December is not the end game. In some ways it is the starting gun for what Nick Molho, executive director of the Aldersgate Group, refers to as the "nitty gritty". The Environment Bill is of course the centrepiece of post-Brexit green regulation, coming with a new Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), as well as long-term targets. It has a completely new regulatory architecture built into it and as such could be "world leading". So, will our flora and fauna flourish and our waterways run pure? Will our chemicals be cleaned up and the air in our cities cleansed? Will we lead the UN COP26 climate talks in Scotland with powerful carbon-pricing policies? Listen to ministers and the answer to all of the above is yes. It is a romantic notion. EU laws have pushed the UK to better protect the environment but the regime is far from perfect, as recent status reports from the European Environment Agency show. "It's a bleak picture," says Martin Baxter, chief policy adviser at IEMA. "You could absolutely argue it could be worse," but "trying to get [28] countries on the same page is more challenging than one. The UK can be more agile."