Brexit’s threat to the environment

By Dr. Richard Dixon, Director

As the Brexit trade talks rumble on, the outlook for the environment in post-Brexit Britain still looks bleak. Environmental standards, food standards and environmental decision-making are all under threat.

The House of Lords and the House of Commons were fighting over whether imported food would have to meet our own domestic food, animal welfare and environmental standards. Without this kind of guarantee we face the prospect of importing products like chlorine-washed chicken, genetically-modified crops from the US, and food containing residues of pesticides illegal in this country.

Meanwhile, the Scottish and UK governments are still arguing about who controls the 111 policy powers that will be inherited from Brussels. These cover many areas important to the environment from maritime law to energy efficiency and water quality. While we were EU members, the Scottish Parliament controlled much in these areas. e.g. the air quality standard for ultra-fine particles is higher in Scotland than in the rest of the UK. But Brexit means these areas will become the domain of the UK Government for an indeterminate transitional period. So we don’t know who will be in charge of environmental standards here from the 1st January. The UK Government say these powers will eventually come to Scotland. But the temptation will be for the UK to hang on to them, to make sure goods can be sold everywhere in the UK. The Scottish Government has promised to try to keep up with improving EU standards and we can’t do that if the standards are set down south. Will our higher air quality rules still apply next year? Will it be Westminster or Holyrood who can change them?

Even if we do end up controlling all our environment and food standards, will trying to keep standards high land us in a trade court for supposedly creating ‘barriers to trade’? These kind of secretive corporate courts are common in trade agreements, with big business suing states over policies that protect people or the environment because they dent their profits.

As 2021 hurtles towards us, the many uncertainties over environmental, food and consumer standards and their relation to trade deals are likely to vex us right up to the wire and beyond.