BREXIT Special
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NEW GROUND AUTUMN 2016 Campaigning for environmental change & social justice G R O U E W N N D BREXIT SPECIAL A U 6 T U 1 M N 2 0 BREXIT WHAT NOW FOR NATURE AND CLIMATE CHANGE? Michael Jacobs, Kerry McCarthy MP & Nick Mohlo On the green challenge of Brexit Down Under Melanie Smallman Greening the Australian SERA launches clean Labor Party air campaign Welcome to our 2016 Autumn Edition ANDREW PAKES It feels like a lot has happened to radical action on air pollution. since the UK voted narrowly to The Mayor of London’s commitment leave the European Union on matches SERA’s new campaign 23 June, yet we seem to be no on air pollution, which Melanie clearer about what Brexit would Smallman writes about in this issue. mean either for the environment or wider policy concerns. It has The referendum campaign threw been a depressing few months for up two lessons for me. One, that the progressive left – losing the too many people did not realise referendum, watching a new (even the positive impact that the EU had more) right-wing Prime Minister take had on driving up environmental up residence in Downing Street, standards in the UK. Secondly, and Labour battling amongst itself. we didn’t campaign hard enough Despite these challenges, there or smart enough. To be fair lots is a job of work to be done for of people did get stuck in, with those of us who care about nature Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth and tackling climate change. amongst some of the best Remain campaigners. Yet too many green This edition of New Ground looks NGOs sat on the sidelines refusing at what Brexit could mean for the to take a proactive campaigning role; environment and how the progressive some were scared by Conservative left can respond. It is going to anti-lobbying laws, but others just take a major effort to protect the didn’t see campaigning as their ANDREW PAKES is the editor environmental gains that have been role. We cannot afford to allow of New Ground and a member won over the last three decades. this to happen again. We need to of the SERA Executive. But there are also opportunities to make our case on the environment He tweets at @andrew4mk forge ahead, especially with a new better – a theme this issue of Labour Mayor in London committed New Ground begins to explore. CONTENTS ABOUT WELCOME 2016 - Andrew Pakes 2 New Ground is published by EDITORIAL Brexit Special / Environmental Law 3 SERA, Labour’s environment campaign www.sera.org.uk FEATURE Brexit Special / Don’t Panic - Michael Jacobs 4 Email: [email protected] FEATURE Brexit Special / Environmental Policy - Nick Molho 6 If you would like to contribute to future editions or join our FEATURE Brexit Special / The Future of Food - Kerry McCarthy MP 8 mailing list, please contact Melanie Smallman, Co-Chair at FEATURE SERA Clean Air / A Breath of Fresh Air - Melanie Smallman 11 [email protected] The views expressed in New VIEWS SERA Clean Air / A View from London - Leonie Cooper AM 13 Ground are those of the authors and not necessarily A View from Europe - Seb Dance MEP VIEWS 15 those of the editor, SERA its executive or its members. VIEWS A View from Scotland - Claudia Beamish MSP 17 Printed and published VIEWS A View from Australia - Felicity Wade 19 by UNP, The I.O. Centre, Unit 7, Skeffington Street, THE SERA RALLY Green Horizons event information 20 London, SE18 6SR 2. SERA Campaigning for environmental change & social justice EDITORIAL ENVIronmentaL LEADERSHIP UNDER THE MICROSCOPE No-one really knows what Brexit Future status of important environmental legislation if the UK left the EU and stayed in the EEA means for the UK, let alone its WOULD CONTINUE TO APPLY WOULD NO LONGER APPLY impact on our environment. Urban Waste Water Directive Birds Directive We know that nearly half of Treatment Directive Habitats Directive our trade (£12 billion) is with Nitrates Directive Bathing Water Directive Europe and that getting the right Groundwater Directive negotiators with the right goals Priority Substances Directive for our own version of TTIP or Air Framework Directive (and daughters) CETA or joining the European Industrial Emissions Directive Free Trade Agreement alongside Emissions Trading Directive Norway, Iceland, Lichtenstein Directive on Carbon Capture and Storage Seveso Directive through the EEA or through a Directives on contained use and deliberate release of GMOs Waste Framework Directive bilateral agreement such as with Sewage Sludge Directive Switzerland, will be important for Waste Shipment Regulation Landfill Directive delivering strong environmental End of Life Vehicles Directive WEEE Directive policies which underpin our Mining Waste Directive quality of life. Many trading partners demand a level playing field, and this gives some shape technologies many of which CITY LEADERSHIP many to environmental policies, are essential to a sustainable and will likely continue ahead. low carbon economy. Many solar businesses 7/10 of the most sustainable cities On a positive note we know for example have folded in the world are in Europe. that those countries within due to the Government’s Frankfurt Berlin the EFTA EEA countries are changes to the subsidies. 1 6 expected to follow the full body 2 London 7 Seoul of EU law, setting out specific Despite issuing the fifth carbon 3 Copenhagen 8 Hong Kong environmental measures including budget, the UK has yet to cross cutting EU legislation. ratify to the Paris Agreement, 4 Amsterdam 9 Madrid However, a small number of and we need to put pressure 5 Rotterdam 10 Singapore measure relating to birds, habitats on the Government to show and bathing water could be leadership and move this Is it too much to suggest that excluded. See table top right forward. Eyes are on new being part of Europe has for a list of what would apply. Ministers for climate change influenced the quality of life in the Nick Hurd and Baroness Lucy UK’s 69 cities? How sustainable Even without the daily challenges Neville Rolfe, in the new BEIS cities are, is important for our of Brexit uncertainty, we are in a department (the merger of BIS quality of life and economies. somewhat precarious position, in and DECC). Looking outside part due to government inaction Britain, there are also red CITIES HOUSE OR PRODUCE: and policies. A shadow has been flags flying with a concern that • 54% of the world’s population cast over the UK’s standing as a one of the candidates to be • 70-80% of business global centre for research and the next US president would • 80% of energy consumption and development of new products and attempt to unpick the pact. greenhouse gas production 3. SERA Campaigning for environmental change & social justice FEATURE DON’T panIC, BREXIT DOESN’T HAVE TO SPELL GLOOM FOR THE ENVIRONMENT MICHAEL JACOBS AMID ALL THE OTHER NEWS they would not have been nearly doing so, and the public and HAPPENING RIGHT NOW, YOU so strong if the UK parliament media should not be encouraged MIGHT have MISSED A vital had acted on its own. Indeed, to believe that it does. story: THE GOVERNMENT HAS British governments have often ACCEPTED THE Climate tried to resist the EU’s push for The UK’s climate change targets CHANGE COMMITTEE’S stronger environmental protection. and policy derive, not from the recommendation FOR THE Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth EU, but from the 2008 Climate ‘FIFTH CARBON BUDGET’. and the Green Alliance were Change Act, passed by the THIS IS THE total AMOUNT rightly vocal remain campaigners. sovereign UK Parliament with OF GREENHOUSE GASES cross-party support. It is the act WHICH THE UK ECONOMY But now that the decision has which requires the government to WILL BE ALLOWED TO EMIT IN been made, mimicking Fraser from set legally-binding carbon budgets: THE 2028-30 PERIOD, WHICH Dad’s Army and crying that we’re indeed, the one just proposed is WiLL noW bE cUt by 57 all doomed is not what’s needed. more ambitious than the targets PER CENT ON 1990 LEVELS On the contrary, it will merely set by the EU. Though the UK encourage those who oppose signed the Paris climate agreement This would be important for the environmental and climate policy as part of the EU, it has to be UK’s contribution to tackling to believe that they now have a ratified in the UK parliament, so climate change at any time. new mandate to get rid of it. Brexit will not change our long- In the aftermath of the EU term decarbonisation goals. referendum campaign it takes on It has not gone unnoticed that special significance, for it nails in the Venn diagram of the It is true that on leaving the EU the myth that Brexit will tear up right there’s a lot of overlap we will no longer be required to all of the UK’s environmental between Brexiters, climate meet its renewable energy and policies and commitments. The sceptics and anti-greens. energy efficiency targets. but environmental movement has Indeed, Nigel Lawson’s Global we will still have to implement been in visible despair since Warming Policy Foundation has them, because they are part of the recent leave vote. That’s already claimed that following our national climate and energy not surprising: most of the the referendum the UK should policies, aimed at meeting the three UK’s environmental laws and abandon its climate policies. goals (decarbonisation, affordability regulations spring from the EU, But the Brexit result provides and security of supply) set by the and environmentalists know that absolutely no grounds for UK government, not the EU.