ECO HAS LANDED
Green minister praises Labour bid to crack down on reckless firms who cause air, water or soil pollution
the final years of her life laying the foundations for ecocide law. Thousands of people have responded to my consultation and I look forward to publishing the report soon.”
Lennon’s Bill has gained cross-party support and Green minister Slater has now praised her campaign.
Under the proposed laws the heads of firms which recklessly pollute waterways, commit large scale chemical leaks or take part in illegal deforestation could potentially be jailed for up to 20 years.
In her letter to Lennon, Slater wrote: “I would like to thank you for the role you have played in raising the profile of the importance of preventing serious damage to the environment.
“You have prompted valuable discussion in Scotland of the developments in thinking about the treatment of ecocide in international and national law.
“I know that you have received cross-party interest and there has been considerable engagement from stakeholders including the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland. As you know, the Scottish
Government has a policy to align, where appropriate, with developments in EU law. The approach the EU will take is now much clearer, with agreement on the revised environmental crime directive.
“Offences are defined as qualified offences if they cause destruction of, or widespread and substantial damage, which is either irreversible or long-lasting, to an ecosystem of considerable size or environmental value or to a habitat within a protected site or to the quality of air, quality of soil, or quality of water.”
In November the EU became the first international body to criminalise wide- scal scale e environmental damage age “comparable to ecocide” e” and it issued a directive it wants member states to enact in law over the next two years. Marie Toussaint, a French lawyer and MEP heading the EU scheme said the decision n “marks the end of impunity nity for environmental criminals”. inals”.
Jojo Mehta, co-founder and CEO of Stop Ecocide International, said: “The global conversation around the necessity of new domestic and, critically, international ecocide legislation is rapidly gaining momentum.
“Scotland finds itself at the forefront of this movement, emerging as a pioneering voice on the issue, a fact that is being recognised worldwide.
“Right now, we lack national and international legal mechanisms to shield us from the most severe harms to nature.
It is highly encouraging to see the Scottish
Government interested in taking meaningful steps to address this legal gap by supporting Monica Lennon’s Ecocide Prevention Bill, aimed at protecting the people and environment of Scotland.
“Not only that, the Scottish Government is looking beyond its borders to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and advocating for the amendment of the Rome Statute to establish a new standalone crime of ecocide, alongside genocide, where it belongs.”
In June, international lawyers drew up a historic definition of ecocide, which they want to be adopted by the ICC to prosecute the worst crimes. They called it “unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and widespread or longterm damage to the environment being caused by those acts”. Legislation in
Scotland is not expected to outlaw the development of new oil and gas fields in the North Sea and it is unclear to what extent activities causing global warming could be covered.
Last week, the government’s independent advisers on climate change warned Scotland’s flagship 2030 target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions is now out of reach.
The Climate Change Committee said the measures needed to achieve the target by the end of the decade were “beyond what is credible”.
It accused ministers of “failing” on ambitious goals and urged them to focus instead on hitting the target “at the earliest possible date”.
The Scottish Government said the target was always challenging and that it was decarbonising faster than the UK average.
Scotland has missed eight of the past 12 annual targets for cutting planet-warming emissions.
The latest figures for 2021 show emissions were 49.2 per cent lower than the baseline year of 1990.
The target for 2030 is a 75 per cent reduction.
My proposed Bill is gaining support and this is a boost to the campaign MONICA LENNON ON
SLATER LETTER