Brexit and environmental standards

Discussions about serious topics, for serious people
User avatar
Bird on a Fire
Princess POW
Posts: 10137
Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2019 5:05 pm
Location: Portugal

Re: Brexit and environmental standards

Post by Bird on a Fire » Wed May 05, 2021 12:36 pm

tom p wrote:
Wed May 05, 2021 12:31 pm
Bird on a Fire wrote:
Wed May 05, 2021 11:37 am
The government is consulting on a new set of Environmental Principles, replacing the principles set out by the EU, that will provide an overarching environmental framework to all policy-making decisions. Well, almost all of them. As Ruth Chambers of Greener UK points out in a useful explainer, “it is rife with get out clauses” and there are “sweeping exclusions for some government departments” including the Treasury and defence. The Wildlife Trusts were also unimpressed: “The Government’s flagship Environment Bill provides no legal duty to apply the principles – instead, Ministers must have ‘due regard’ to a policy that can be changed by government whenever it likes.” The BBC reported on concerns that the principles are meaningless anyway, as the government presses on with damaging projects like the Cumbria coal mine (though the government is now taking another look at that project). You can read the policy statement on which the consultation is based here.
https://www.inkcapjournal.co.uk/environ ... rewilding/
The emboldened part is precisely what the leave tories meant by 'taking back control'. 17 million awful racist morons of Britain voted for it, and now they're getting it.
Sadly I think a lot of rural Tories genuinely thought the UK would reform the subsidy system inherited from the CAP in a way that benefitted the countryside around them. When Gove was at DEFRA he was consulting with all the right people on exactly that, and according to people who'd been in the room seemed to have a genuine interest - but apparently not enough of one to make sure it resulted in legally-binding targets.

Lots of people I know in conservation who are more experienced and far wiser than I am were very confident that the UK wouldn't water down environmental standards. Plodder was arguing the same thing on here. I've often felt like a gloomy catastrophist over the last 5 years but the reality is even worse: I was right.
We have the right to a clean, healthy, sustainable environment.

tom p
After Pie
Posts: 1876
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 1:14 pm
Location: the low countries

Re: Brexit and environmental standards

Post by tom p » Wed May 05, 2021 12:55 pm

If they thought a tory government wouldn't water down environmental standards at the first opportunity, then they are in no way wise. Especially not if they are experienced, because that experience has to have told them that watering them down is what the tories are all about and always have been.
These people you refer to are credulous morons.

User avatar
Bird on a Fire
Princess POW
Posts: 10137
Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2019 5:05 pm
Location: Portugal

Re: Brexit and environmental standards

Post by Bird on a Fire » Wed May 05, 2021 12:59 pm

tom p wrote:
Wed May 05, 2021 12:55 pm
If they thought a tory government wouldn't water down environmental standards at the first opportunity, then they are in no way wise. Especially not if they are experienced, because that experience has to have told them that watering them down is what the tories are all about and always have been.
These people you refer to are credulous morons.
I'll be sure to tell my PhD supervisor that next time I see her ;)

I do wonder if you have to have a large dose of blind optimism to actually have a long career in conservation. If you went through the decades in wide-eyed awareness of how everything is sh.t and getting worse all the time you'd shoot yourself.
We have the right to a clean, healthy, sustainable environment.

tom p
After Pie
Posts: 1876
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 1:14 pm
Location: the low countries

Re: Brexit and environmental standards

Post by tom p » Wed May 05, 2021 1:08 pm

Bird on a Fire wrote:
Wed May 05, 2021 12:59 pm
tom p wrote:
Wed May 05, 2021 12:55 pm
If they thought a tory government wouldn't water down environmental standards at the first opportunity, then they are in no way wise. Especially not if they are experienced, because that experience has to have told them that watering them down is what the tories are all about and always have been.
These people you refer to are credulous morons.
I'll be sure to tell my PhD supervisor that next time I see her ;)

I do wonder if you have to have a large dose of blind optimism to actually have a long career in conservation. If you went through the decades in wide-eyed awareness of how everything is sh.t and getting worse all the time you'd shoot yourself.
Probably

User avatar
Bird on a Fire
Princess POW
Posts: 10137
Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2019 5:05 pm
Location: Portugal

Re: Brexit and environmental standards

Post by Bird on a Fire » Fri May 14, 2021 12:22 pm

I've not had time to read it yet, but the Institute for Public Policy Research have a new report out on a just transition for UK farming:
Reforming our farming system is of critical importance if we are to rise to the challenge of the nature and climate crises.

But farming in the UK is facing not one but several transitions. These include:

the advent of new agri-environment schemes
new trading arrangements
an increasing role for technology in farming
shifting demographics of the farming workforce
the impacts of a changing climate
a potentially protracted recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.

These transitions present challenges and opportunities, both to overcome the environmental crises we face and to do so in a way that is economically and socially fair and contributes to solving many of our other shared problems. Given the challenges farmers face and the urgency with which we need them to deliver climate solutions, support the return of wildlife recovery, and contribute to more resilient landscapes and communities, now is the time to reaffirm the place of farming in national life.

This report proposes a renewed social contract for farming, which would set out the roles and responsibilities for farmers, the state, and the public in the shift towards a net-zero and nature-positive economy. We propose this comes in the form of six priority areas of action.
https://www.ippr.org/research/publicati ... or-farming
We have the right to a clean, healthy, sustainable environment.

User avatar
Bird on a Fire
Princess POW
Posts: 10137
Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2019 5:05 pm
Location: Portugal

Re: Brexit and environmental standards

Post by Bird on a Fire » Fri May 14, 2021 12:34 pm

Also a focus on agricultural transition in the recent British Ecological Society report into "nature-based solutions":
In agricultural landscapes, planting native woods and hedgerows could reconnect habitats and fragments of ancient woodland. The resulting loss of grassland would reduce the UK’s capacity to produce meat and dairy, and therefore getting people to reduce overall meat consumption would also be part of the solution, the report says.

Grassland is the most extensive habitat in the UK, covering 40% of the country, but only 2% is considered biodiverse and carbon-rich. Protecting and restoring semi-natural grasslands will have multiple benefits for biodiversity and carbon sequestration.

The way animals are farmed should also change. Stocking densities should be decreased and rotational, “mob”, or mixed grazing systems should be encouraged, using a variety of herbivores (such as sheep, cattle, horses and goats). This could increase diversity among grasses and sequester carbon, the report says. Creating more ponds, re-wiggling rivers, encouraging margins around fields, and creating space for agroforestry are also solutions.

“What I see now is a real opportunity for mainstream agriculture, and grassland management, to change towards agro-ecological approaches,” said Dr Lisa Norton, from the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, and lead author of the grasslands chapter. “So farmers are not just farming to produce food, they’re also farming for climate change mitigation and for enhancing biodiversity.”
We have the right to a clean, healthy, sustainable environment.

User avatar
Bird on a Fire
Princess POW
Posts: 10137
Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2019 5:05 pm
Location: Portugal

Re: Brexit and environmental standards

Post by Bird on a Fire » Fri May 21, 2021 11:40 am

So, DEFRA are going to "review" the Habitats Regulations - the transposition into UK law of the EU Habitats Directive, which currently means that developers have to show no adverse impacts on sites with a SAC designation. Good for conservation, bad for property developers.

Not that I'm in any way pre-judging the outcome of this review by a team hand-picked by the Conservatives, that includes a lawyer whose career has been spent helping developers get around the regs.

Bit of background here https://twitter.com/MilesKing10/status/ ... 3076481024
We have the right to a clean, healthy, sustainable environment.

Post Reply