Four former chairs of UK environment agencies are among an influential group of environment and conservation experts who have written to the Defra Secretary of State Liz Truss, to voice their concerns about the risks to the environment if Britain leaves the EU.

The fourteen signatories have extensive professional experience of the role of EU agreements on the UK and include Baroness Young, former chief executive of the Environment Agency, Dame Fiona Reynolds, former director-general of the National Trust, Professor Sir John Laughton, former chair of the Royal commission on Environment and Pollution, Lord Chris Smith and Sir John Harman.

They highlight that EU policy “has had a hugely positive effect on the quality of Britain’s beaches, our water and rivers, our air and on many of our rarest plants and animals and their habitats.”

 They add that “It is very unclear which elements of existing European environmental policy would continue to apply to the UK… We would no longer be able to shape EU policy and our influence on the environmental performance of other member states would decline very sharply once we were no longer at the negotiating table.”

Professor Sir John Lawton CBE FRS, former chair of the Royal Commission on Environment and Pollution,  and former chief executive, Natural Environment Research Council commented:

“Never mind what you think of the EU generally, you have to be very careful what you wish for in terms of the impact of Brexit on UK natural habitats and landscapes. UK politics has a tendency to be short term and see the natural environment as an impediment to economic growth, and EU agreements help mitigate this by encouraging us to be more long term in our public policy.”

Professor Paul Ekins OBE, professor of resources and environmental policy at University College London added:

“Britons have benefited greatly from EU environmental policy and Britain inside the EU has also been able to shape it. We would lose this ability if we were to leave the EU, while it is very likely that we would still have to follow EU environmental laws if we wished to retain access to the EU’s single market. This would effectively reduce UK sovereignty rather than increasing it. Paradoxically, perhaps, membership of the EU is an essential condition for the UK to exercise some sovereign influence over the European forces that affect it.”

Green Alliance, an independent think tank, has co-ordinated the letter and its signing.