On Wednesday 6th February the House of Lords EU Energy and
Environment Sub-Committee will hold a roundtable discussion with
industry experts to explore how EU mechanisms which ensure
compliance with environmental obligations will be replaced after
Brexit.
The discussion follows on from the Committee’s 2017
inquiry Brexit: environment and climate
change, which recommended that an independent
domestic enforcement mechanism should be established in order to
replace the powers of the European Commission and CJEU to enforce
environmental obligations.
The Government’s draft Environment (Principles and
Governance) Bill, published in December 2018, includes provisions
to establish an Office for Environmental Protection. The
Committee will explore whether this new office will be effective
in taking enforcement action on environmental law and in ensuring
that Brexit does not result in a reduction in environmental
protection.
-
Martin Baxter, member of the
Broadway Initiative’s project board
-
Professor Charlotte Burns,
co-chair of the Brexit and Environment Network
-
Ruth Chambers, senior
parliamentary affairs associate at Green Alliance
-
Begonia Filgueira, the UK
Environmental Law Association’s Brexit Task Force
Co-Chair
-
Professor Richard Macrory,
Emeritus Professor of Environmental Law at University College
London
-
Debbie Tripley, legal advisor
at WWF
-
Tom West, UK Environment Lead
at ClientEarth
Topics which are likely to be covered
include:
-
Whether the proposed Office of Environmental
Protection (OEP) is sufficiently independent
-
Whether it has the powers it will need to hold the
Government to account
-
Whether it should have a UK-wide
remit
-
Whether its proposed remit should be extended to
include legislation aimed at reducing greenhouse gas
emissions
-
What changes would need to enable the OEP to
enforce any ‘non-regression’ clause that might be agreed as
part of a Withdrawal Agreement
