Brexit could be “devastating” for UK environment say campaigners

Leading environmentalists have argued that key climate change and conservation measures may be destroyed as a result of the UK’s Brexit vote. Campaigners and charities have said that the implications for the UK’s environment could be “devastating” as over 70% of environmental safeguarding regulations are based on EU legislation. Areas affected could include air and water pollution and protections against dangerous chemicals. Greenpeace has suggested that rules limiting fracking could also be abandoned.

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Regulations set in place to help fight climate change and protect Britain’s wildlife may be destroyed following the Brexit result, top environmentalists have warned.

Reacting to the vote to leave the European Union, charity groups and climate change campaigners said the result could have a “devastating” effect on the UK environment, since more than 70 per cent of environmental safeguarding comes from European legislation.

Greenpeace UK executive director John Sauven said: “Many of the laws that make our drinking and bathing water safe, our air cleaner, our fishing industry more sustainable and our climate safer now hang by a thread… There is a very real fear that Cameron's successor will come from the school that supports a bonfire of anti-pollution protections.”

In an post-referendum statement, Friends of the Earth said the group could “no longer rely on the EU to protect our nature and habitats”, adding that clean beaches, air quality and bees were among the factors put at risk by potential loss of EU legislation.

Craig Bennett, Friends of the Earth’s CEO, said: “The referendum may be over but many of the difficult debates are only just beginning. The environment must be at the heart of our negotiations with Europe and how we create a positive future for our country. We cannot let the UK return to the days of ‘the dirty man of Europe’. Protections for our birds and wildlife, our beaches and rivers, must not be sacrificed in the name of cutting away so-called EU ‘red tape’. “

“The environment was rarely mentioned during the referendum but it must now move up the political agenda. With urgent issues like climate change, air pollution and destruction of the natural world already impacting this generation, not just the next, we don’t have time for the environment to take a back seat through years of negotiations.”

6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you Show all 6 1 / 6 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you More expensive foreign holidays The first practical effect of a vote to Leave is that the pound will be worth less abroad, meaning foreign holidays will cost us more nito100 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you No immediate change in immigration status The Prime Minister will have to address other immediate concerns. He is likely to reassure nationals of other EU countries living in the UK that their status is unchanged. That is what the Leave campaign has said, so, even after the Brexit negotiations are complete, those who are already in the UK would be allowed to stay Getty 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you Higher inflation A lower pound means that imports would become more expensive. This is likely to mean the return of inflation – a phenomenon with which many of us are unfamiliar because prices have been stable for so long, rising at no more than about 2 per cent a year. The effect may probably not be particularly noticeable in the first few months. At first price rises would be confined to imported goods – food and clothes being the most obvious – but inflation has a tendency to spread and to gain its own momentum AFP/Getty Images 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you Interest rates might rise The trouble with inflation is that the Bank of England has a legal obligation to keep it as close to 2 per cent a year as possible. If a fall in the pound threatens to push prices up faster than this, the Bank will raise interest rates. This acts against inflation in three ways. First, it makes the pound more attractive, because deposits in pounds will earn higher interest. Second, it reduces demand by putting up the cost of borrowing, and especially by taking larger mortgage payments out of the economy. Third, it makes it more expensive for businesses to borrow to expand output Getty 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you Did somebody say recession? Mr Carney, the Treasury and a range of international economists have warned about this. Many Leave voters appear not to have believed them, or to think that they are exaggerating small, long-term effects. But there is no doubt that the Leave vote is a negative shock to the economy. This is because it changes expectations about the economy’s future performance. Even though Britain is not actually be leaving the EU for at least two years, companies and investors will start to move money out of Britain, or to scale back plans for expansion, because they are less confident about what would happen after 2018 AFP/Getty Images 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you And we wouldn’t even get our money back All this will be happening while the Prime Minister, whoever he or she is, is negotiating the terms of our future access to the EU single market. In the meantime, our trade with the EU would be unaffected, except that companies elsewhere in the EU may be less interested in buying from us or selling to us, expecting tariff barriers to go up in two years’ time. Whoever the Chancellor is, he or she may feel the need to bring in a new Budget Getty Images

Those in favour of leaving the EU have argued that the UK may soon be free of “red tape” restrictions which are damaging to UK farms and fisheries, the latter being known to discard large quantities of dead fish into the sea to avoid breaking EU quotas.

Remain campaigners, however have praised the EU’s record on environmental issues as one of its greatest achievements, arguing that union legislation has helped towards tackling water and air pollution, protect endangered species and impose tough safeguards on the use of genetically modified crops and potentially dangerous chemicals.

While laws that have already been adopted into English and Scottish law will still apply following the UK’s departure form the EU, parliament will be able make changes should it choose.

Rules restricting the amount of fracking could also be lifted, since the majority of restrictions come from European directives, Greenpeace analysis suggests.

Green Party MP Caroline Lucas has called on progressive parties to “join forces” in order to “resist any attack on hard won rights” following Brexit.

“This decision could be devastating for the environment,” said the MP for Brighton, “The EU has been at the forefront of global action on climate change and Britain has been leading that push. [Friday’s] decision not only undermines our standing in the international community, but represents a huge gamble with our own green energy targets and performance.”