The UK needs to strengthen, not rollback, its environmental protections – Inside track

Across the world, governance systems that protect precious environments and people are being dismantled. This may feel a far cry from the cut and thrust of domestic politics, but there are already signs that some parties want to replicate or even supercharge such moves here. Poor environmental governance puts lives at risk, as it can lead to the persecution of those who seek to defend human rights and environmental protection, as well as habitat destruction, resource depletion and toxic pollution.

Many countries are weakening their protections
On 24 July, Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa issued Executive Order 60, eliminating the Ministry of the Environment, Water, and Ecological Transition and transferring its functions to the Ministry of Energy and Mines, which is responsible for promoting oil and mining.

This effectively dismantles Ecuador’s environmental oversight system, and appears at odds with Ecuador’s constitution, which was the first in the world to recognise the rights of nature. It is concerning that the Ministry of Women and Human Rights is also to be abolished and transferred to the Ministry of Government.

Elsewhere on the continent, worryingly regressive moves are afoot in Brazil where the so called ‘Devastation Bill’ would streamline approvals for new infrastructure like roads, dams and mines. It passed both houses of Brazil’s Congress on 17 July despite opposition from hundreds of civil society organisations. President Lula has until 8 August to veto the bill, which a UN expert has said could cause “significant environmental harm and human rights violations”, and represents a “rollback for decades” of protections in Brazil.

Brazil and Ecuador are worrying bellwethers of how environmental governance systems are becoming vulnerable to shifting political winds.

Closer to home, our nearest trading partner, the EU, has been accused of a rollback of environmental policy, watering down the European Green Deal, delaying a law on deforestation and downgrading wolf protections.

And what of our wannabe trading partner, the US? In July, the Environmental Protection Agency put 139 workers on leave when they signed a ‘declaration of dissent’ from the agency’s policies under the Trump administration, saying they “undermine the EPA mission of protecting human health and the environment”. The agency’s funding and  policy foundations appear to be at grave risk of corporate capture.

Protecting the UK’s environment can’t rely on ‘good chaps’
In the UK, environmental governance has evolved rapidly since Brexit, with a series of oversight and enforcement mechanisms established or on the way. But a continued reliance on the ‘good chaps’ theory of government, the shrinking space for civil society and slowness to invest meaningfully in systems that uphold ethics and integrity, inhibit more fulsome progress.

In democracies, words matter. It’s been disappointing to see government ministers here, egged on by a growing caucus of pro-growth groups, repeatedly engage in ‘species shaming’ where wildlife such as bats and newts are scapegoated for delivery and planning failures, ignoring the fact that nature is the vital underpinning of the economy.

The Environment Secretary Steve Reed recently admitted that some of the government’s language “ran away with itself a little bit”. Chancellor Rachel Reeves clearly didn’t get his memo as she has continued to push an anti-nature stance, taking aim at that arch enemy of economic growth, the snail, in a subsequent parliamentary committee hearing.

To their credit, housing and nature ministers Matthew Pennycook and Mary Creagh have resolutely clung onto their departments’ beliefs that ‘win win’ outcomes for housing and nature are both possible and desirable. But, in spite of their personal commitments, it took a major intervention from the Office for Environmental Protection, parliamentary pressure and civil society campaigning to persuade the government to address the regression it initially proposed in its Planning and Infrastructure Bill.

UK environmental governance needs shoring up
As global events have shown, a positive direction of travel is far from guaranteed on the environment. The short sighted changes to climate and environmental policy that some English councils led by Reform have introduced are local examples of the fragility of policy.

While no government can entirely bind the hands of its successor, there are actions each of the governments in the UK could take to strengthen environmental protections for the benefit of future generations.

It seems the UK government has already started to think this way, at least on its flagship Best Start project for children in the early years, where it has sought to ringfence funding and deeply embed the project in local communities.

Why stop at Best Start? It should act with similar conviction on its environmental programmes, especially those to restore nature, tackle climate impacts and improve air and water quality, which all need very long term commitment for good results.

Next year, the UK government and parliament will review how well the flagship Environment Act 2021 has worked. As part of this post legislative scrutiny, it should consider whether the governance measures in the act could be strengthened. The Cabinet Office is beavering away behind the Whitehall curtain on its public bodies review. Instead of the quango chopping that such reviews often seek, it should be looking to strengthen the governance arrangements of important oversight bodies such as the Climate Change Committee and the Office for Environmental Protection. The UK government should also embrace the British Academy’s recommendation for a dramatic strengthening of governance across departments, at all levels, to meet net zero targets.

In Wales, an environmental governance bill is likely to be one of the last pieces of legislation passed before the 2026 Senedd elections, with much of it falling to the next administration to implement. Early scrutiny in the Senedd has homed in on Welsh ministers’ preference for discretion over legislative certainty, which is risky given that polling is suggesting major changes in the make up of both the next government and Senedd following the 2026 elections. Important issues such as the independence of the new environmental oversight body, the Office of Environmental Governance Wales and the scope of duties on public authorities to take account of environmental principles must be legally robust.

An independent panel is reviewing Northern Ireland’s environmental governance. Its interim recommendations call for the Northern Ireland Environment Agency to be independent of the country’s government and for an environmental audit committee to be established in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Once the panel has issued its final report, these sensible measures should be adopted swiftly.

In Scotland, the Natural Environment Bill will introduce legally binding nature targets into law. This is welcome, although the Scottish government should ditch its pitch for open ended powers to change laws that protect important habitats and species. It should also deliver on its commitment to embed the right to a healthy environment in law and properly review the justice system for enforcing environmental law, looking again at the benefits of a specialist environmental court.

The UK’s environmental protections are often held up as examples to emulate, with policies such as biodiversity net gain attracting international interest. We should be proud of the progress made, while looking to protect the systems that underpin it for the long term.