A new report assessing how the environment will fare post-Brexit has found weaker environmental protections than already exist under EU law, with water one of the major areas of concern.

Commissioned by Friends of the Earth, UK Environmental Policy Post-Brexit: A Risk Analysis reviews risk to UK and EU environmental policy under the Norwegian, Canadian, Turkish and planned and chaotic no deal Brexit scenarios.

Other areas of concern addressed in the report authored by Prof. Charlotte Burns, University of Sheffield, Dr Viviane Gravey, Queen’s University Belfast, and Prof. Andrew Jordan, Tyndall Centre, University of East Anglia include birds and habitats, energy and climate change, chemicals, agri-environment and the marine environment .

The researchers are warning that under all scenarios water faces high risks and regulatory gaps raise the prospect of ‘zombification’ of UK environmental policy: where EU policies are retained, and exist on the UK statute book, but without a system of governance to enforce them.

Commenting on water quality, the researchers refer to the latest Environment Agency state of the environment report in England which found that:

“Over the last 30 years, there has been good progress following more than a century of poorly regulated industrial practices. England has the cleanest bathing waters since records began, serious pollution incidents are steadily declining and rivers that were biologically dead are reviving.”

“The vast majority of this progress has been driven by the implementation of EU directives” the report says.

The researchers have serious concerns about whether commitments to maintaining and improving the water environment will continue post-Brexit.

The report is warning of the risk of what it describes as zombification on a number of key water policy issues, including drinking water and bathing water standards.

However, for drinking water, the report says that given investment in the sector and the public expectation that water will be safe and clean to drink it “seems unlikely that there will be a roll back on quality.”

On bathing water, the researchers conclude that while in the short term at least it seems likely that standards will remain at current levels, there is a potential risk of “longer term zombification” where the standards are not updated. “Indeed the UK slipped in the bathing water rankings when the directive was last updated as it struggled to implement the more stringent rules.” the report says.

The failure to keep up to date with scientific advance is also flagged up as an on-going risk, especially if the governance gap is not addressed to ensure that policy is regularly monitored. Failure to do so would see the transparency and accountability that characterise current policy cease.

According to the researchers, the commitments made in the 25 Year Environment Plan do little to address these concerns and remain “vaguely worded and weak, particularly in comparison to EU legislation. “ saying “it is perhaps surprising that commitments are limited to 2030.”

25 Year Plan goals for good water body status less ambitious than EU Water Framework Directive

The researchers have highlighted the Water Framework Directive as a principal area of concern where there are on-going challenges with meeting good water status.

The report says the commitment in the 25YEP to improving at least three quarters of UK waters to be close to their natural state as soon as is practicable, is a less ambitious target than the EU’s Water Framework Directive, which aims for good status for all-natural water bodies by 2027 at the latest.

“ The wording of the 25YEP implies a roll back of policy and potentially the reassertion of the traditional UK cost-based approach to policy-making. The uncertainty about the transfer of environmental policy principles is also of relevance here – the polluter pays principle has been used successfully as a tool for taking acting against water companies for failing standards.”

The report refers to “concerns about the fragility of government’s commitments to water quality” after Brexit, saying they are further fuelled by the common frameworks proposal, which considers water as an area of policy not requiring a UK wide framework.

The researchers are warning that this would open the way for differentiated zombification, or roll-back of key standards e.g. regulation of diffuse pollution from agriculture.

The report concludes that while the 25YEP contains “lots of promises” to bring forward consultations, strategies and polices in the next year to two years, “worryingly, where concrete commitment are made they generally offer weaker protection than that currently provided under EU law.”

The researchers say that until the shortcomings are rectified, it is “difficult to see recent speeches and announcements as offering any real security or genuinely mitigating the risks posed by the scenarios.”

The report sets out a number of recommendations aimed at strengthening environmental protection post-Brexit. The researchers are calling for the Government to ensure policies brought forward to implement the 25YEP have timelines and targets at least as ambitious as those currently offered by the EU.

The report also recommends that the UK government and devolved nations should work collaboratively to in order to develop suitable joint frameworks for developing UK-wide environmental policy. As a first step, existing joint frameworks should be reviewed with a view to proposing legal coordination on water quality.

FoE : “legal safeguards are not in place … time is running out.”

Commenting on the report, Kierra Box, Brexit campaign lead at Friends of the Earth , said:

“We were promised that Brexit wouldn’t harm our environment - but this analysis shows that under all scenarios currently on the table, this promise will be broken.

“Brexit is now just a year away, but we’re not prepared. Report after report is showing that decision-makers have not identified ways to make sure that the UKs future relationship with the EU locks in environmental protections – in fact, they’ve set down negotiating red lines that actively stand in the way of a ‘green Brexit’.

“The legal safeguards are not in place for nature and the climate. And promises of action are just backed up by more promises of action. Time is running out.”

Click here to download the report UK Environmental Policy Post-Brexit: A Risk Analysis