In a keynote speech on the future for environmental principles and governance post Brexit, Emma Howard Boyd, Chair of the Environment Agency has warned over potential risks regarding the Environment Bill post Brexit, saying the policy decisions risked being narrowly defined and that the Agency “would like to be certain all Ministers will respect the principles.”

Speaking at the Westminster Energy, Environment and Transport Forum conference on last week, Environment Agency chief told delegates that the recent consultation on the first Environment Bill in 23 years received 176,746 responses and the Agency was ready to collaborate to turn the 25 Year Environment Plan’s ambitions into action.

The Agency is looking forward to working with the Government’s proposed Office for Environmental Protection, she said, commenting:

“We recognise outstanding questions about its resource and ultimate powers, but we think the Office’s proposed approach - investigating complaints about environmental law and bringing about compliance through legal proceedings - could hold Government and public bodies to account effectively.”…

“The inclusion of principles - along with Environmental Improvement Plans – means we would like to see this Bill play a role in the long-term management of the environment, regardless of what happens in politics in the short-term.”

However, she went on to warn over potential risks, saying that while Clause 4 of the Bill ensured that Ministers must “have regard to” the principles when making policy decisions, the policy decisions risked being narrowly defined and that the Agency “would like to be certain all Ministers will respect the principles.”

Embedding them in a domestic framework of policy and law would ensure that law and policy makers respect environmental principles, and decision makers – including courts - may refer to them.

The EA Chair said the Agency was looking forward to long term goals on specific ambitions in part two of the Bill.

For example, proposed legislation concerning the assessment and management of environmental risks - could help the country manage water better by:

• reducing damaging abstraction from rivers
• making improvements to long term planning for drainage and waste water
• improving regional planning for water resources.

Other proposals Emma Howard Boyd would like to see implemented include legislation for mandatory biodiversity net gain with Environmental Net Gain as a long term ambition -the Bill has the flexibility to make this happen in the future she said.

Speaking in her capacity as UK Commissioner to the Global Commission on Adaptation, she concluded by calling for hard targets on climate change adaptation, saying:

“If we don’t come together to deal with climate change, the impacts will tower over our present political disagreements. The accelerating physical risks mean environmental management and adaptation must be given more focus, alongside essential efforts to reduce emissions.”

“There is no point in building low carbon, energy efficient infrastructure that could be washed away in a flood or destroyed by heat.”