Latest news with #naturelaws
The Guardian
05-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Labour using Brexit to weaken nature laws, MPs say
Labour is using post-Brexit freedoms to override EU nature laws and allow chalk streams and nightingale habitats to be destroyed, MPs have said. The planning and infrastructure bill going through parliament will allow developers to circumvent EU-derived environmental protections and instead pay into a nature restoration fund. This would override the habitats directive, which protects animals including otters, salmon and dormice. Under the new bill it will be possible to pay into the fund and build over their habitats. The bill also allows potential development of EU-designated sites including sites of special scientific interest and special protection areas. This week the Guardian revealed that the bill poses a threat to 5,251 areas known as 'jewels in the crown' for nature. They include cherished natural landscapes such as the New Forest, the Surrey Heaths, the Peak District Moors and the Forest of Bowland, and rivers such as the Itchen in Hampshire and the Wensum in Norfolk. The Office for Environmental Protection, the nature watchdog set up to replace EU checks and balances, has warned that the bill would be a 'regression' in terms environmental protection. Clive Lewis, the Labour MP for Norwich South, said the public did not realise Brexit was being used to weaken nature laws. 'I don't think people have made the connection about Brexit,' he said. 'What we, the Labour government, are doing with Brexit is using it in such a poor way. We've already seen it with water standards, pesticide standards over the last eight years, but this just turbocharges it all. 'There's a sense we are able to get away with it because it's not what people expect us to do. There is immediate outrage from the public when the Tories do it. People are confused when Labour does it.' He said he would be voting against the bill in its current form. 'I don't understand how anyone who is environmentally minded can vote for this bill,' Lewis said. Other political parties are planning to try to win over disaffected nature-loving Labour voters who will be disheartened to see their local green spaces concreted over before the next general election. Gideon Amos, the Liberal Democrats' planning and housing spokesperson, said: 'The government seems content to dilute protections of our waterways and local wildlife with vague promises of future benefits and little clarity about when they will materialise. With national landscapes and precious chalk streams disappearing, we need urgent action from the government, working with our European neighbours, to protect vital ecosystems which run right across Europe. 'The Liberal Democrats have long led the campaign in parliament to clean up our rivers and chalk streams. We will continue to fight for their survival with our amendments to protect chalk streams and natural habitats in this bill.' Zack Polanski, the deputy leader of the Green party, said: 'Labour are once again showing there's nothing they won't learn from Reform. Not only are they content to sell off nature to the highest bidder, they're only able to do so because they've utterly failed to defend the regulations that once protected our environment. 'This destruction is only possible because of their utter inaction on making the case for the value of EU environmental protections. From nightingales to chalk streams, our natural habitats deserve so much better than this bill – and so much better than this nature-destroying Labour party.' The Wildlife Trusts said: 'The legislation would significantly weaken important habitat regulations – rules which have helped to effectively protect wildlife and wild spaces for decades. In so doing the bill risks stripping away vital protections without clear requirements on developers to deliver the nature restoration needed to revive precious landscapes such as chalk streams, wildflower meadows and ancient woodlands, and to protect treasured species like hazel dormice, otters and struggling bird and butterfly species.'
The Guardian
16-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Federal EPA a ‘very high and immediate' priority of Albanese government, environment minister says
Legislating a federal environment protection agency is a 'very high and immediate' priority for the re-elected Labor government, new minister Murray Watt has said, signalling he wants nature laws passed quickly to avoid another drawn-out political fight. In an early statement of intent, Watt will next week travel to Western Australia where he intends to meet face to face with the premier, Roger Cook, and mining industry leaders whose lobbying helped sink the proposed EPA in the previous term. In his first interview with Guardian Australia in the role, the Queensland senator said he was also considering dropping the 'nature positive' title for Labor's wider overhaul of the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (Epbc). 'I am considering the type of language we use to describe these reforms,' Watt said. 'I think the more we can explain these concepts in terms that Australians can understand and buy into, I think that does improve our chances of building public support for them.' The former industrial relations minister was last week appointed to replace Tanya Plibersek, whose three years in the environment portfolio were defined by a failure to win support for promised nature protection laws. Watt's first priority is a decision on Woodside's application to extend its North-West shelf gas project to 2070 – due on 31 May – before he turns his attention to fixing the EBPC Act. The Labor frontbencher said it was 'certainly his intention' to make a ruling before the deadline rather than seek another extension. Plibersek was on the cusp of a deal with the Greens in November to establish the EPA before it was scuttled by the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, amid pressure from Cook and WA miners. Albanese stepped in again in February, shelving the legislation indefinitely to the anger of environmental groups and grassroots Labor members. The prime minister recommitted during the election campaign to establish a federal nature watchdog but not in the some form to the one shunted weeks earlier. With the government committed to fresh rounds of talks with industry and environment groups, Watt would not be drawn on the possible design of EPA 2.0, including the option of an agency that enforces nature laws but does not approve projects. Albanese offered up that model – which sections of industry backed – in a futile attempt to win the Coalition's support in the previous term. The EPA was just one part of the wider 'nature positive' plan, which also included a suite of national environmental standards in line with recommendations in Graeme Samuel's review of the EPBC Act. Plibersek put the standards on the backburner, with no timeframe for their implementation, after splitting up the package in April last year. Watt said he was open to changing course, pursing one large set of laws – including an EPA – rather than multiple tranches. 'It was absolutely understandable that we progressed the reforms in a staged manner prior to the election,' he said. 'I've got a genuinely open mind about that (one broader bill). There will be pros and cons about that, and that's one of the things that I want to consider.' Watt has not formed a view about national environmental standards but said it was 'his intention to progress these reforms in the spirit of Graeme Samuel's recommendations'. The new minister wouldn't set a deadline for the legislation but has signalled Labor wants to resolve the legislation early in the term, outside the heat of the pre-election period. 'This is a very high and immediate priority for the government,' Watt said. 'It's why on day one on the job, I was on the phone to all of the key stakeholders talking about this. It's why I'm headed to WA next week … to get those conversations started. 'I do think that the immediate period after an election is an ideal time to settle complicated, contentious reforms and I want to use that opportunity to the best effect.' The minister insisted he wasn't 'picking sides' in the debate, having held phone calls with environment groups, such as Greenpeace and Australian Conservation Foundation, and industry groups such as the Minerals Council of Australia. Watt was open to working with either the opposition or the Greens to strengthen environment laws, with both parties under new leadership after the election. The new Greens leader, Larissa Waters, urged the government to be 'bold' as she reaffirmed the party's position on banning native forrest logging and blocking new coalmines and gas fields. Labor has ruled out a ban on native forrest logging but has committed to applying national environmental standards to regional forestry agreements. The government also has no plans to add a 'climate trigger' to environmental laws, adamant the safeguard mechanism is an appropriate mechanism to regulate emissions from fossil fuel projects. Watt welcomed Waters' commitment to a 'constructive' approach to dealing with Labor. 'This [environment protection reform] would be an ideal opportunity for her to show that she's serious about that,' he said.
