UN warns Britain it must keep its ‘green’ Brexit pledge
WEAKENING environmental protections after Brexit would damage Britain’s reputation internationally, the United Nations (UN) has warned.
Environment Secretary Michael Gove must keep his promise to deliver a “green” exit fr om the European Union, senior official Erik Solheim urged.
Campaigners warned earlier this month that the environment and countryside will have less protection after Brexit under plans unveiled by the Government.
Mr Solheim, executive director of the UN’s environment programme, said it was “incredibly important that the UK keeps the environmental standards it has had under the European Union”.
He said: “Michael Gove promised that would happen – that there would be no reduction of standards of any sort.
“He even added that any change would be to better standards. There was a strong commitment to that from the government. Some of the opponents of the government had doubts about such statements, but that is the stated position from the government and it is a very good one.
“Any dilution and the UK reputation would be damaged. People in government need to make sure that does not happen. We need to make sure they have those standards or improve them, or meet the ones under the European Union.”
Environmental measures from improving air and water quality to protecting endangered species are currently overseen by the European Commission and underpinned by green principles across the EU, such as “the polluter pays”.
Mr Gove insisted earlier this month that new legislation would ensure environmental protections are not weakened as Britain quits the EU and a new watchdog will hold Whitehall to account for looking after landscapes and nature.
Campaigners warned that the regulator must have powers to take the Government to court if it fails to deliver on green policies and raised concerns over protections for action on climate change.
In a separate Brexit development, SNP leader and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will this week “restart the debate” on Scottish independence, in anticipation of the outcome of Britain’s departure from the EU becoming clearer this autumn.
She said the findings of her party’s economic growth commission would offer the opportunity for a debate on Scotland’s future based on “ambition and hope”.
The commission, chaired by former SNP MSP Andrew Wilson, was set up in 2016 to look at economic policy options for an independent Scotland.
It will make recommendations on the monetary policy for an independent Scotland as well as the range of transitional cost and benefits associated with independence. Reports have suggested the commission will back the creation of a Scottish currency.
Asked about the timing of a second independence referendum Ms Sturgeon yesterday told ITV’s Peston on Sunday: “Once we get some clarity, which hopefully we will in the autumn of this year, about the Brexit outcome and the future relationship between the UK and the EU then I will consider again this question of the timing of an independence referendum.
“I’m not going to say more about that in advance of that moment arising.
“But of course over the next couple of weeks we will, I suppose, restart a debate about why independence for Scotland is an opportunity and what those opportunities are.
“As you know we’ve had a growth commission looking at the economic opportunities of independence.
“Its report will be published in the coming days and I think that’s quite an important moment, because if you think about the last couple of years in the UK it has been very much a debate about how we cope with the damage of Brexit.
“What I think Scotland now has the opportunity to do is look at how we seize the opportunities that lie ahead, so a debate based very much on ambition and hope not a debate that’s based on despair, which is how the Brexit debate so often feels.”
Ms Sturgeon repeated her assertion that the SNP would not be a block to a second referendum on the terms of the Brexit deal, and said there was still time for the UK and Scottish Governments to secure an agreement on vital Brexit legislation after the Scottish Parliament voted to withhold consent for the EU Withdrawal Bill.
Meanwhile, Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson is set to deliver a keynote speech on the future of the union.
Writing in the Financial Timesy she said the SNP’s report demonstrated the union “remains under threat” and said the UK should become less Londoncentric to strengthen and protect it.
She called for major institutions such as the British Museum – to consider setting up elsewhere in the UK, as well as for most fishing infrastructure to be moved to Scotland.
She also suggested that more government posts should be spread around other parts of the country.