Queen's Speech December 2019 - Environment Bill

Environment Bill

“To protect and improve the environment for future generations, a bill will enshrine in law environmental principles and legally-binding targets, including for air quality. It will also ban the export of polluting plastic waste to countries outside the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and establish a new, world-leading independent regulator in statute.”

The purpose of the Bill is to:

• ●  Transform our environmental governance once we leave the EU by putting environmental principles into law; introducing legally binding targets; and establishing a new Office for Environmental Protection.

• ●  Increase local powers to tackle sources of air pollution.

• ●  Protect nature and improve biodiversity by working with developers.

• ●  Extend producer responsibility, ensure a consistent approach to recycling, introduce deposit return schemes, and introduce charges for specified single use plastic items.

• ●  Secure long-term, resilient water and wastewater services, including through powers to direct water companies to work together to meet current and future demand.

  The main benefits of the Bill would be:

  • ●  Protecting and improving the environment with new domestic governance, including a world-leading environmental watchdog that can robustly hold the Government to account, including powers to take the Government to court.

  • ●  Improving air quality and people’s health by fighting air pollution.

  • ●  Restoring and enhancing environmental biodiversity so that our plants and wildlife can thrive.

  • ●  Making progress towards resource efficiency and a circular economy minimising the damage caused to our natural environment by reducing and managing waste safely and carefully.

  • ●  Ensuring we can manage our precious water resources in a changing climate. 112

The main elements of the Bill are:

• ●  Establishing new long term domestic environmental governance based on: environmental principles; a comprehensive framework for legally-binding targets, a long term plan to deliver environmental improvements; and the new Office for Environmental Protection.

• ●  Improving air quality by setting an ambitious legally-binding target to reduce fine particulate matter (PM2.5), the most damaging pollutant to human health. The Bill also increases local powers to address sources of air pollution and brings forward powers for the Government to mandate recalls of vehicles when they do not meet legal emission standards.

• ●  Protecting nature by mandating ‘biodiversity net gain’ into the planning system, ensuring new houses aren’t built at the expense of nature and delivering thriving natural spaces for communities. We will improve protection for our natural habitats through Local Nature Recovery Strategies and give communities a greater say in the protection of local trees.

• ●  Preserving our resources by minimising waste, promoting resource efficiency and moving towards a circular economy. These measures include extended producer responsibility, a consistent approach to recycling, tackling waste crime, introducing deposit return schemes, and more effective litter enforcement. We will also ban the export of polluting plastic waste to non- OECD countries, consulting with industry, NGOs, and local councils on the date by which this should be achieved.

• ●  Introducing charges for specified single use plastic items. This will build on the success of the carrier bag charge and incentivise consumers to choose more sustainable alternatives.

• ●  Managing water sustainably through more effective legislation to secure long- term, resilient water and wastewater services. This will include powers to direct water companies to work together to meet current and future demand for water, making planning more robust, and ensuring we are better able to maintain water supplies.

  Territorial extent and application

● Most of the Bill’s provisions would extend and apply to England, with a small number of provisions extending to Northern Ireland only. Over half of the Bill’s provisions would extend and apply to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

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● Environmental policy is a largely devolved matter (subject to a small number of areas that are reserved).

Key facts

• ●  In the November 2019 YouGov top issues tracker, the British Public placed the environment among the most important three issues facing the country (after Brexit and Health).

• ●  The Government is already taking strong action to ensure we are the first generation to leave the environment in a better state than we found it, as set out in our 25 Year Environment Plan.

• ●  We are the first major economy to legislate to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and will be hosting the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP26) in 2020.

• ●  In 2015 the government introduced a 5p charge on single use carrier bags (reducing sales of single use bags in the big supermarkets by 90 per cent).

• ●  In 2019 we introduced a ban on microbeads in cosmetic and personal care products, plastic straws, drinks stirrers, and plastic stemmed cotton buds in England (coming into force April 2020), following overwhelming public support.

• ●  We have invested £3.5 billion into cleaner air and emissions of nitrogen oxides have fallen by over a quarter since 2010. But we must go further.

• ●  Published in January 2019, our Clean Air Strategy has been praised by the World Health Organisation as “an example for the rest of the world to follow” and aims to halve the harm to human health from air pollution in the UK by 2030.

• ●  We will reach an additional 75,000 acres of trees a year by the end of the next Parliament.

• ●  We have strengthened protections for ancient woodlands, veteran trees and other irreplaceable habitats in the revised national planning policy framework and created the new Northern Forest and Northumberland Forest.