The country may be split on Brexit, but one thing most of us agree on is that our money should not be invested in a way that goes against our values.

Profit should not come at any price, particularly investments with a long time horizon, such as your pension. No one is saving with the deliberate intention of creating a future that is financially secure but socially and environmentally impoverished – because what would be the point in that? 

So most people would be pretty unhappy if they knew about the impact of some of the company shares that they own through their pension. But most don’t know.

Fossil fuels

This lack of knowledge isn’t due to a lack of ethics, but rather a surfeit of labels, indexes, ratings and disclosures which leave most investors reeling. Instead, we look for something we can feel good about such as giving up meat, buying a bamboo toothbrush and shopping in packaging-free shops. 

It turns out that using an ethical compass, particularly in the world of investment, involves an ever-increasing list of regulations and standards.

The impetus to provide ethical choices for pensions and investments may actually be slowing the shift of capital away from ecologically damaging activities as it moves towards efforts to address the twin crises of climate and society. 

It’s no good focusing on the good companies, if the bad ones carry on as before. And we all have a different view of which those are.

For example while some global energy companies have turned their backs on fossil fuels to transition into purely renewable generation, others see this just as an add-on to the way they’ve always done things.

Unethical markets

The market theory is that company behaviour is driven by incentives rather than rules, by carrots rather than sticks. The incentive should be for companies to engage with stakeholders, changing their strategies to address their concerns. 

One global consumer goods company notably staked its market reputation on shifting to a more sustainable business model rather than simply being measured on growth and profitability. Sustainable business is good business too, right?

But global giants invariably still operate in unethical markets too – where do we choose to draw the line?

Companies like this are able to jump through the ethical hoops needed to be included in indices such as FTSE4Good which highlights stocks which display positive environmental, social and governance strategies. 

But that’s the problem. By choosing your investments with your ethical compass you are inherently aligning them towards things that are good rather than away from things that are bad. 

Stock market

Hell will freeze over (or Greenland will melt) before there is a stock market index called FTSE4Bad. Here’s the list of companies which are currently in the FTSE 100.

They include fossil fuel companies, mining businesses, house builders, global supermarket chains and multinational banks. Most pensions’ default settings will include most, if not all, of these stocks. 

This Author 

Bruce Davis is managing director of Abundance Investment, which advertises with The Ecologist.

Almost two thirds of people want to know about a flight’s carbon pollution when they search online, new polling released today shows. 

Friends of the Earth is calling for all airlines to make a flight’s carbon pollution public before a customer books so that an informed choice about how to travel can be made.

People are thinking much more about their personal actions in connection to climate change so it’s right that companies do better at showing the climate impact of what they sell.

With long-haul flights creating more carbon emissions than that produced by the average person in dozens of countries in an entire year, companies that market to travellers should be clearer about the impact of their services.

Greener choices

Recent research showed even a short return flight from London to Edinburgh pumps out more carbon dioxide (CO2) than the mean annual emissions of a person living in Uganda or Somalia.

But, with airlines advertising to us all the time, and given the attractiveness of travel, isn’t it time we were able to make informed decision about the cost?

Aaron Kiely, climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: “Major train websites show carbon pollution so why can’t airlines do the same?

“Now the full scale of the climate emergency is known we have decisions to make about how we live our lives, and it’s reasonable to want to make changes based on a full picture – industry should be clearer and more up-front. This is what people also want as this polling shows.

“Giving people more information about the journeys they take can prompt them to make greener choices about their travel – maybe even deciding against that long-haul break for just a few days or look at a train instead to assess the cost, in pounds and carbon, of a journey.”

We can arrive at better decisions about how we spend our time, our money, and how we reconcile the pollution generated, if we have more information – information that all industries should publish.

This Author 

Marianne Brooker is The Ecologist’s content editor. This article is based on a press release from Friends of the Earth. 

Youngsters are urging people to join them in the streets for demonstrations as part of what is expected to be the largest global climate strike.

More than 150 protests are planned in the UK from Cornwall to Scotland on Friday September 20, as children and students leave lessons and lectures to demand urgent action to curb global warming.

They are being supported by more than 80 environmental groups, aid agencies, social and religious organisations, and by unions, with the TUC Congress voting to call for “workday campaign action” to coincide with the strike.

Demonstrations

Youth strikers are calling on parents, businesses, working people and politicians to get behind the action and demand urgent steps to tackle the climate crisis.

The UK action is part of an estimated 2,500 events that will take place around the world, including New York, where teenage activist Greta Thunberg will take part in a strike, having sailed to the US by yacht to avoid flying.

The global movement, inspired by Greta’s weekly protests outside the Swedish parliament, has helped push climate and environment up the agenda, along with major UN scientific reports on the impacts of rising temperatures and the Extinction Rebellion protests.

Thousands of young people took to the streets in strikes in the UK in February, and in March as part of a global day of action.

The YouthStrike4Climate campaign is organised by the UK Student Climate Network, which has co-ordinated more than 550 demonstrations this year.

Demanding

Next Friday’s global protest comes ahead of a UN climate action summit in New York, with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urging world leaders to boost national ambitions for cutting greenhouse gases to tackle the crisis.

It comes as polling by Opinium of 2,000 UK adults for the UK Student Climate Network found more than six in 10 (61%) believe in supporting the youth climate strikers and driving climate action.

In the UK, students want action including effective policies such as a “green new deal” which would cut carbon and at the same time reduce household bills, provide better quality housing, and deliver zero-carbon infrastructure and jobs.

Jessica Ahmed, 16, from London and part of the UK Student Climate Network, said: “The Government’s failure to tackle climate change and implement effective policies can’t be ignored anymore.

“On September 20, millions of people will be taking action globally, demanding change and policies that will protect our future, such as a Green New Deal.

Grandchildren

“Instead of focusing all their energy on Brexit, we desperately need our politicians to put their time, resources and money towards dealing with the worsening climate emergency. Time is running out.”

Anna French, a mother of two from Bedfordshire, who is going on strike, said: “Seeing the children take to the streets, I felt a great sense of shame that we have left this problem to them.

“We have a responsibility to do everything we can to help secure them a safe future. I am taking action now so I can look at my children in the eyes and know I did all I could.”

And John Sauven, executive director at Greenpeace UK, said older generations had failed and it was the children whose voice people now had to listen to.

“They’re asking us to join them as they hit the street once again on September 20. The question for adults today is – when your children and grandchildren ask if you stood with the schools strikers will you be able to say you were there?”

This Author

Emily Beament is the PA environment correspondent.

One of the UK’s largest renewable energy suppliers has written to Sajid Javid, the chancellor, to warn that plans to change VAT from five percent to 20 percent for families buying solar panels and renewable technology could harm the country’s push for a net zero carbon economy by 2050.

Juliet Davenport, chief executive and founder of Good Energy – which has around 250,000 customers, called on Mr Javid to scrap the plans, which come into effect on October 1 this year. 

She wrote: “There are more than one million solar PV installations now in operation across the UK.

Rules

“Their sum capacity totals more than our single biggest power station. This has grown from near-zero within 10 years, showing what can be achieved when we encourage people to be part of the solution to climate change. We need to ensure that this momentum is not lost.

“Consequently, this government must not support the proposed VAT increase to 20 percent on clean energy solutions for households, including solar and storage, whilst it remains at five percent for coal and gas.”

The letter also has the support of Nina Skorupska, chief executive of the Renewable Energy Association; Alice Bell of 10:10 Climate Action and Aaron Kiely, climate campaign lead at Friends of the Earth.

A petition on the issue has received more than 17,000 signatures.

Current rules mean anyone buying solar panels or other electricity storage for their homes are charged five percent VAT, but an EU ruling in 2015 said the UK government must charge the full 20 percent.

Scrap

Negotiations led to the Government and EU agreeing that the 20% level only needs to be charged for technology over a certain threshold, but Good Energy warn this could stifle innovation.

Kit Dixon, Good Energy’s regulatory affairs officer, explained: “It penalises people who want to use the best technology. If you have panels and a battery installed in your home or business you’ll almost certainly be above that threshold.

“The energy system is changing and more homeowners and businesses do want to invest in this kind of technology and it is vital we see an uptake from this tech.”

He added that last month’s blackout across large parts of the country could be avoided in the future if more households generated their own electricity and relied less on the national grid.

The calls to scrap the planned VAT rise also come as figures suggest that solar panel installation rates have been steadily falling as government backed incentives and subsidies have been cut.

Amend

Labour accused the government of “actively dismantling” the solar power industry, whist still agreeing to huge subsidies for new nuclear power stations.

The Treasury was approached for comment, but said it was a matter for HMRC.

An HMRC spokesperson said: “The government is committed to greening our economy and designed the changes for energy-saving materials to retain as much of the VAT relief as possible for UK households, while complying with EU law.

“While the UK remains a member of the EU, the Government is obliged to make these changes which were approved by Parliament on 25 June and will take effect from 1 October 2019. As all taxes are kept under review, it may be possible to amend these rules once the UK has left the EU.”

This Author

Simon Neville is the city editor at PA.

A “fundamental shift” away from all single-use packaging – not just plastic but other materials too – is needed to help the environment, MPs have urged.

The government should review systems where customers can reuse and refill containers to see what works and where official intervention could encourage retailers to offer refillable options, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee said.

Refill schemes already being piloted include the Waitrose “unpacked” trial being rolled out to several stores, which has refillable options for products ranging from wine and beer to cereals, pasta and cleaning products.

Example

Another is Loop, run by TerraCycle and set to be piloted in collaboration with Tesco, which will deliver products ordered online to homes in reusable containers that will then be collected, cleaned and refilled.

A report from the committee warned that, in the backlash against plastic, there was increasing use of alternatives such as aluminium, glass, paper and plastics made from biological materials or which are compostable.

But these all have environmental impacts, potentially causing problems such as pushing up energy use and carbon emissions, while there is confusion over compostable plastics and issues with disposing of them, the report stated.

The MPs said the Government was not putting enough emphasis on reducing plastic food and drink packaging in the first place, and called for a fundamental shift away from all single-use packaging of various materials.

They also urged Parliament to lead by example, with the ambition to remove single-use packaging from all its catering facilities.

Compostable

The government has unveiled plans to improve recycling rates, with a greater responsibility on producers to pay for the costs of dealing with packaging, a deposit return scheme on drinks containers and more consistency in local council recycling collections.

The committee’s report backed these moves, and also called for the proposed plastic packaging tax – which will tax packaging with less than 30% recycled content – to have lower fees for higher levels of recycled material.

Neil Parish, the committee chairman, said: “We all know that plastic pollution of our rivers and seas is a huge problem.

“However, replacing plastic with other materials isn’t always the best solution, as all materials have an environmental impact.

“My committee is also concerned that compostable plastics have been introduced without the right infrastructure or consumer understanding about how to dispose of them.

Recyclable

“Fundamentally, substitution is not the answer, and we need to look at ways to cut down on single-use packaging.”

He added: “Currently, packaging labelling can be confusing, unclear, or even misleading.

“Ensuring that all local authorities collect the same plastics for recycling will make it easier for packaging to be labelled, so consumers know whether that packaging is recyclable or not.”

A spokesman for the Local Government Association said: “Manufacturers need to up their game now and respond to the public’s call to action by using packaging that is fully and easily recyclable, and pay the full cost of recycling packaging.

Households

“Councils are doing all they can to improve recycling rates, but further improvement on current levels needs significant extra funding so councils can cover new materials proposed in the Government’s waste strategy.

“Councils should be free to decide how to deliver their waste services locally, as various factors determine waste collection methods, such as property type and rurality.”

A government spokesperson said its waste strategy would ensure businesses and manufacturers “pay the full net cost” of handling packaging that ends up in household waste.

“Our reforms will also mean producers will need to label their packaging as ‘recyclable’ or ‘not recyclable’ so households can know more clearly what they can recycle.”

This Author

Emily Beament is the PA environment correspondent.

Blackpool’s piers stand exposed and look perilously fragile as the North Sea waves crash again and again against the Victorian structure.

These structures stand as an appropriate reminder of the very immediate threat climate breakdown poses to some of our most valuable coastal heritage – it’s quite literally falling into the sea. 

World Monuments Fund (WMF) featured the piers in their 2018 ‘Watch’ cycle to raise awareness and broker solutions. WMF also joined with Blackpool Council to bring together a delegation of world experts for the Blackpool Sea Change conference. The delegation’s expertise spanned fields from conservation to architecture, tourism, academia, and drew participants from grassroots as well as professional bodies.

Managing change

Blackpool Sea Change showcased examples of such heritage under threat and shared best practice – and offered up solutions. 

It is clearly not possible to hold back the tide, as the apocryphal and appropriately historic story of King Cnut so ably demonstrated. Climate breakdown has always altered our coastlines, but the rate of change is rapidly accelerating, with significant losses predicted over the next century.

In 1772 the light house at Orford Ness was two miles from the sea; now waves lap at its door.

The Blackpool Sea Change conference, which included 60 presentations from 13 different countries, had three clear take-away messages. As archaeologists, conservators and heritage professionals, many of the audience in the room were at the forefront of understanding that change is the story of the past, the only constant. Heritage conservation can therefore best be described as the ‘careful management of change’.

As such delegates were well-placed to help explain future change, by imaginatively demonstrating what has happened in the past. This usefully addresses a commonly held perception that the heritage profession is about stopping change or ‘pickling in aspic’. 

Honest and brave

There are many solutions to climate breakdown and coastal built heritage, from the traditional, such as building sea-defences and protecting against physical erosion, to managed retreat, which accepts and records loss.

Hard solutions however, are expensive, and the heritage cause needs to be combined with other needs to make a strong case.

Increased loss is inevitable, and we need to be more honest and braver in telling that story. Most importantly we need to make decisions and to prioritise. The alternative is that the decision will be taken for us.

The heritage profession needs to work in partnership with others – both to share solutions and to ensure our voice is heard. A theme heard repeated throughout the conference was of the success of nature-based solutions in mitigating the impact of climate breakdown, many of which had significant value for cultural heritage – the restoration of saltmarsh for economic benefit in the Venetian lagoon being an active example.

Concepts such as ‘natural capital’ are invaluable in making politicians, decision-makers and business leaders understand the financial benefits of investing in solutions to climate breakdown: the same applies to cultural capital, which we need to explain better. Combining forces with others in the world of arts, culture, heritage and tourism was seen as an important step.

Innovative technologies

It’s paramount that we involve local communities, help them to understand the issues and to care for their heritage, and that we adopt a clear language and a values-based approach.

The use of art, photography and a range of innovative technologies, combined with a desire for true engagement (rather than consultation) were seen as essential pre-requisites for success.

Next steps for World Monuments Fund, Blackpool Council and the other conference partners, are to encourage participants and others with an interest to join The Climate Heritage Network, which launches in October in Edinburgh.

We are also exploring publishing the proceedings of the conference and developing a one-day version of the event which would act as a road-show for other coastal areas of the UK. 

This Author 

John Darlington is executive director of World Monuments Fund Britain. An archaeologist by training, John is an author and conservation professional with over 30 years of practical experience. He tweets at @JohnD_WMFB.

It will soon be Landscapes for Life Week – when Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) partnerships across the nation come together to celebrate the UK’s protected landscapes and the nature, heritage and culture that make them so special.  

This year’s runs from 21 to 29 September and is an extra special one for us. We will be celebrating the pioneering and far-sighted vision enshrined in 1949’s National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act that paved the way for the designation of AONBs and National Parks.

Designated landscapes were seen then as a sister to the National Health Service and both were part of the post-World War II settlement, with AONBs and National Parks giving people access to the mental and physical health benefits of the countryside and the NHS helping people if they became ill.

Watershed moment

2019 looks like a watershed moment for the natural world in general and for designated landscapes in particular.

The Government published its 25 Year Environment Plan in January 2018 with the ambitious aim to be “the first generation to leave the environment in a better state than we found it”, followed by the Welsh Government’s publication of the Valued and Resilient Paper in July 2018, after the Future Landscapes: Delivering for Wales Review reported in 2017. 

One of the earliest actions of the 25 Year Environment Plan was the setting up of the Review of Designated Landscapes, chaired by the journalist Julian Glover. We expect the final report to be released in the coming weeks and anticipate a robust challenge to us to make a significant step change, to reshape our aims and deliver in a world that would be almost unrecognisable to those post-war pioneers. 

Climate breakdown and the wildlife crisis that we are seeing across the UK are two sides of the same coin and we must take urgent steps to address them.   

Our native species and habitats are in decline like never before. The 2016 State of Nature Report showed that 15 percent of our native species are under threat of extinction and 53 percent are in decline. Over 1000 species are threatened with annihilation in the UK and the measure assessing how intact a country’s wildlife is suggests that we are among the most nature-depleted countries in the world.

Colchester Declaration 

The depreciation of natural environments affects not only our native species but also our national finances, amplifying the effects of climate change as evidenced by the many recent extreme weather events, from flooding to grassland fires. The effects of climate change are now undeniable. 

Landscape-scale intervention to restore habitats, species and ecosystems is now widely recognised as the most effective way we can restore ecological functions and help wildlife and human communities adapt to the changes that are unfolding.

Indeed, there has never been a more important time to address landscape cohesion and resilience and designations such as AONBs have a vital part to play in co-ordinating the necessary work and helping everyone to lift their eyes to the landscape level.

In recognition of their unique responsibilities and strengths, AONB Partnerships and Conservation Boards made a formal commitment at the Landscapes for Life Conference earlier this summer to increase the scale and pace of their delivery for nature in the form of the Colchester Declaration.

The declaration is a joint pledge to collectively protect what remains and recover what has been lost in our natural environment. This will build on the significant and often unpublicised work that AONB teams have been carrying out to restore nature. 

Habitat restoration 

Considering that AONBs make up some 15 percent of the land area in England, these commitments are not insignificant. 

The Colchester Declaration sets out specific ambitious stretching targets that join up the dots of climate breakdown and nature loss.

AONB Partnerships and Conservation Boards have committed to Achieving net zero by 2050 by incorporating meaningful actions in AONB Management Plans in their next cycle (2024); embedding an ecosystems services approach – maximising the benefits that nature can provide through carbon sequestration and flood alleviation; and actively working to restore habitats and re-establish species on a landscape scale through strong connections with their local landowners. 

AONB Partnerships have a very strong proven track record of delivering on species recovery and habitat restoration: from Anglesey, where the Source to Sea project restored polluted waters to create habitats for fish and other wildlife, to Suffolk Coast and Heaths, where the precious saltmarsh habitat for fish fry and birds has been restored.

Valuable carbon capturing peatland restoration work has taken place across the country – in Cornwall, North Pennines and Forest of Bowland AONBs. There are many more examplesshowcased in our 70@70 project.

Knowledge and capability

It is important to note that while we have the proven knowledge and capability to deliver what is needed, AONBs are important landscapes that are, on the whole, in private ownership.

Much of the richness these places have to offer is the product of the stewardship of generations of farmers and landowners. While accessible to many, they are the working ‘factory floor’ of the UK’s food and timber production and support a growing and important domestic tourism industry. Having the tools and resources to support nature friendly farming is therefore key. 

Over the past year or so, representatives of AONB Partnerships and Conservation Boards have worked alongside Defra to develop the new Environmental Land Management Schemes (NELMS) which will incentivise more environmentally-friendly farming practices and simplify the current system of farm payments.

AONB teams are ideally placed to both develop the new schemes and support their delivery. They have the skills, knowledge and experience of delivering for nature. Embedded as they are in their local communities, they have detailed knowledge about the species and habitats in their localities and have the power to convene.

AONB teams work in established partnerships with their local landowners: farmers, large estates, charities, local authorities and other conservation organisations such as Natural England, the National Trust and the RSPB to effect positive landscape change.

The NELMS tests and trials will begin in the coming months and we look forward to working with Defra and our local partners to deliver for nature.

This Author

Howard Davies has been chief executive of the National Association of Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty since 2010 and was previously director of Wildlife Trusts Wales. 

All eyes are on New York as Greta Thunberg prepares to speak at the UN’s Climate Action Summit next Monday.

With temperatures rising and young people the world over mobilising, the pressure on decision-makers to take action against climate change has never been higher.

Food production’s contribution to carbon emissions has been much reported. What’s less well recognised is agriculture’s role as a carbon sink. Judicious use of appropriate agricultural techniques can trap carbon, increase yields and build farmers’ resilience to changing weather patterns. 

Rural communities

It’s neither fair nor realistic to expect some of the world’s poorest people to factor CO2 emissions into decisions that will determine whether they are able to feed, clothe or educate their loved ones.

It’s therefore critical that rural communities are given appropriate support to identify and implement sustainable farming systems that pay out financially and environmentally for farmers. 

From cost-saving soil management techniques to growing world-class coffee underneath the canopy of forests, there are many climate-savvy techniques that Farm Africa promotes to farming communities across eastern Africa.  

These techniques are not one-size-fits-all approaches but are tailored to the environmental, economic and cultural realities in which farmers operate.

Soil management 

A third of the Earth’s soil is acutely degraded. Worst affected is Africa. Globally, soil stores an estimated 9.8 billion tonnes of carbon.While soil degradation releases carbon, soil conservation traps it. What’s more, the brown stuff beneath our feet is the basis for all food production.

Boosting the fertility of Africa’s soil presents multiple benefits for people and the planet alike, by decreasing the cost of production; increasing farms’ productivity; boosting microorganisms in the soil; and sequestering carbon.

With funding from Irish Aid, Farm Africa supported maize farmers in southern Ethiopia to adopt minimum tillage techniques, which don’t require oxen or tractors to plough the land.

Leaving soil alone can boost organic matter and, subsequently, carbon levels. The shift saw farmers improve their yields and profit margins. A win-win for farmers and the climate.

Cutting waste

Food waste contributes 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. On its own, food waste would be the third-largest emitter in the world, after the US and China.

In developing countries, food waste mainly happens at the start of the supply chain: 40 percent of developing country farmers’ losses occur at the post-harvest and processing levels. 

In Tanzania’s dry Dodoma region, farmers rely on the sorghum they grow to feed their families. An increasingly volatile climate endangers smallholders’ yields, and climate shocks regularly push people into poverty.

When Dodoma’s smallholders achieve a bountiful harvest, sub-standard warehouses and a lack of on-farm storage facilities see much of their harvest going to rot.

Farm Africa is connecting these farmers with businesses that sell simple but effective farm equipment, like tarpaulins and sacks, which can significantly reduce post-harvest losses. We’re also training warehouse staff to process farmers’ produce properly, to improve its shelf life, and store their products safely, reducing losses from pests and diseases.

These changes will allow farmers to eat and sell more of their hard-earned food. 

Agroforestry

Scientists have recently said that halting deforestation is ‘just as urgent’ as reducing emissions. Agriculture is one of the main drivers of deforestation.

In forest communities across the African continent, low incomes force people to convert forests into farmland and pastures for cattle.

We help communities set up profitable forest-friendly businesses, like wild coffee production, incense harvesting and beekeeping.

Unlike traditional farming, these businesses provide people with a secure income without damaging the forests. In fact, it does the opposite. It flips the script, making forests a vital economic resource that communities must protect.

Avoiding monocultures

Growing two or more crops next to each other or side-by-side – a method often described as intercropping– can transform agricultural systems.

This simple technique can be great for the environment and farmers’ wallets. A diverse mix of crops often provides a better habitat for bees and other pollinators.

Intercropping nitrogen-fixing crops, like peas or sesame, alongside other crops, means that farmers can spend less on nitrogen-based, usually carbon-intensive, fertilisers.

In Kenya, Farm Africa is training cashew farmersto plant sesame crops between cashew trees. Drought-tolerant sesame can withstand extreme weather, diversifies farmers’ incomes, maximises land use and sits happily with neighbouring cashew trees.

Politicians take note

Climate and agriculture are intertwined; one affects the other in so many ways.

Climate change is turning farmers’ lives upside down. Yet with the appropriate technical and financial support, farmers could emerge as climate change heroes.

Agriculture presents a vehicle for climate action. It’s time to take big steps towards supporting farmers all over the world to reduce the carbon footprint of food production. And it’s possible to do so in ways that yield financial as well as environmental benefits. 

This Author

Sam Viney is a communications and advocacy officer at Farm Africa. Sam’s interested in how farming can protect people and planet whilst continuing to produce food.

Connecting greenspace across the country and bringing about more transparent discussions about UK land ownership could improve biodiversity and significantly offset emissions, a new report from Common Wealth argues. 

Additionally, the plan outlines how new jobs could be created through the large-scale restoration of peatland, shifting ownership of grouse-hunting land, and greening decommissioned industrial areas. Farmers working on low-grade subsidised land would be incentivised to work on rewilding and maintaining that land.

Naomi Klein, global climate activist said: “This is exactly the kind of deep policy work we need if we are going to turn the Green New Deal from a slogan into a life-saving reality in the UK and around the world.”

Road map

The report is part of Common Wealth’s Road Map to a Green New Deal series, which calls for a transformation of the economy, outlining an increase in government investment to rapidly decarbonise the economy and create millions of well-paid jobs, a 100 percent renewable energy system, a public green transport network, and decent, affordable, zero-carbon housing for all.

The series includes reports by activist groups such as Greenpeace and Green New Deal for Europe, as well as think tanks like IPPR, NEF, and international policy thinkers.

Professor Simon Lewis, author of the report, said: “What is unique about this UK Restoration Plan is by focusing on connection, it combines helping wildlife and helping people adapt to climate change. This Green New Deal for Nature is about modest investments resulting in a big increases in the quality of all our lives.”

The report emphasises the benefit to rural communities, as well as giving urban, working-class communities more access to nature. It comes in the wake of recent calls from the National Audit Office that the government is not prepared for a new system of agricultural subsidies after the UK leaves the EU, leaving farmers exposed to risk.

Others have reported that UK farmers are scrambling to export surplus produce in the lead up to Brexit. Meanwhile, rewilding projects have taken off in recent years, with recent news that rewilding has caused white storks to spread across England for the first time in 600 years.

Practical and thoughtful

Lily Cole, actor and environmentalist said: “While technologists design fancy carbon-capture machines, nature offers us the simplest, most cost-effective and profound way to solve our environmental crisis.

“Re-thinking land use in the UK (and globally), offers us the opportunity to capture huge quantities of carbon, enhance biodiversity, and also improve our own human relationship to the land.

“There can be no doubt that re-wilding will be critical in the drive towards increased environmental sustainability: the question is how to do it.

This report offers practical and thoughtful ideas on how re-wilding might happen in the UK, for example by diverting agricultural subsidies to reward people for providing environmental services instead, or creating land corridors for wildlife between hedgerows.

“I hope the report is the beginning of a positive conversation on how we might turn this crisis into an opportunity.”

Vital contribution

Caroline Lucas, Green MP for Brighton Pavilion said: “A UK Green New Deal is vital to our future, and to the future of the 1.4 million young people who have joined inspiring school climate strikes across the globe.

The Green New Deal is a pluralistic, justice-focused economic plan for a rapid transition, and I welcome Common Wealth’s exciting and vital contribution, drawing on talents and energy from across the climate movement.

“Ten years on from the original UK Green New Deal I was proud to be a part of, a transformation of our economy toward sustainability and justice is more urgent than ever.

We must reject the false dichotomy of economics and climate change mitigation. A UK Green New Deal – powered by social movements and a pluralistic, radical politics – can provide a future with good jobs and clean energy for all. Common Wealth’s roadmap is a vital contribution to that debate.”

This Author 

Marianne Brooker is The Ecologist‘s content editor. This article is based on a press release from Common Wealth.

The UK public faces the prospect of watered-down food regulations after Brexit with Parliament having little say, the UK Trade Policy Observatory (UK TPO) is warning.

New analysis by legal experts at the University of Sussex-based UK TPO warns that stringent regulation, which currently restricts some of the more controversial US food produce from UK supermarket shelves, could be stripped away with minimal Parliamentary scrutiny through Statutory Instruments (SIs).

The EU Withdrawal Act 2018 allowed the creation of over 10,000 pages of new legislation to retain EU rules, including on food safety.

Risk

Some of these provide extensive scope for ministers to make future changes to food safety legislation, notably potentially significant concessions to the US over GM crops and pesticides, in the pursuit of a headline-grabbing trade deal, without the level of scrutiny that primary legislation would provide.

The use of SIs would give a UK prime minister determined to overcome opposition to loosening UK food safety legislation a relatively clear path to ratifying a US-UK FTA – particularly as the UK Parliament has a much weaker influence on treaty negotiation in comparison to both the US or EU.

Such a move could prove extremely unpopular with the UK public, 82 per cent of the UK public favour retaining high food standards over a US trade agreement, and could damage future food trade with the EU, which accounts for around 70 per cent of UK food exports.

This risk is most applicable in the event of no deal or in a scenario of a basic free trade agreement (FTA) with the EU. Parliament would have only limited means of opposition through blocking ratification of an FTA or specific SIs.

Revoke

Dr Emily Lydgate, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Law at the University of Sussex and Fellow of the UK Trade Policy Observatory, said: “In the event of no deal, or a basic EU-UK Free Trade Agreement, the UK Government will be under pressure to make a success of Brexit through new trade agreements.

“The concern is that ministers have extensive scope to make significant food safety concessions in order to reach an agreement with the US potentially in the face of opposition from consumers or food producers who would worry about losing access to the EU market.

“The US has long complained about the EU’s hazard-based approach to banning some pesticides categorically, rather than permitting their residues, and also over the lengthy EU process for approving new genetically modified crops, which the US Trade Representative (USTR) estimates costs US agriculture $2 billion/year.”

Chloe Anthony, a LLM student at the University of Sussex, said: “The real risk is that there are SIs giving ministers a lot of power on controversial policy areas which the US will be pushing very hard to reform.

“Through SIs, UK ministers have the ability to amend, revoke and make regulations on how active ingredients in pesticides are authorised, the maximum residue levels permitted in food and to the GMO application and authorisation process.”

This Author

Brendan Montague is editor of The Ecologist.