Would Brexit damage the environment?

[unhappycamper]

http://www.dw.com/en/would-brexit-damage-the-environment/a-19131877

A new report claims that a UK exit from the EU would leave Britain’s environment vulnerable. But on the flip side, Brexit could increase environmental protection in the rest of Europe.

Would Brexit damage the environment?
Dave Keating
21.03.2016

Green groups have warned that a UK exit from the European Union could be disastrous for Britain’s environment, and last week their argument was given a boost when a high-profile report concluded that Brexit would lead to “significant risks” for nature.

EU rules have led to a decline in pollution and carbon emissions and to an increase in biodiversity protection, the report by the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) says.

But the effect of a Brexit on the environment, both inside and outside the UK, is unclear. It depends on how much the environment and climate policies of the UK and the EU would diverge.

Were the UK to leave the EU, most EU environment and climate law would remain on the books because the directives have been implemented in national legislation. But the UK would be free to use its new-found freedom to scrap these laws if it wished, if the terms of its new relationship with the EU allowed it to do so. Environmentalists suspect environmental laws would be on the chopping block.