Save our environment and kill Jacob Rees-Mogg’s Brexit bill

One of the proudest moments of my life came on 10 October 2015, when I was awarded the RSPB Medal for my role in drafting the EU Habitats Directive in the 1980s.

Thirty years after the Habitats Directive was adopted unanimously by the EU Council, Europe has the single most extensive network of protected areas anywhere in the world, known as Natura 2000.

The UK’s contribution to Natura 2000 still covers almost 600 sites, both terrestrial and marine. These are truly the “crown jewels’’ of this country’s natural heritage, and are based on criteria that include the protection of habitats and species. The sites cover wetlands, woodlands, moorlands, coastal zones, key landscapes, and marine protected areas.

But today, these crucial Natura 2000 sites – and most of our environmental laws – are at risk, because the UK’s habitats regulations, which govern these sites, are themselves at risk, because of Jacob Rees-Mogg’s vindictive, ill-judged and – in my view – disastrous Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill.

Under the government’s proposals, laws that protect our environment by helping to tackle climate change, maintain biodiversity and keep air, water and beaches clean are all at risk. The Retained EU Law Bill – which some have labelled the Brexit Freedoms Bill – currently being considered by parliament proposes a “sunsetting” mechanism that would apply to all EU-derived legislation.

Any UK law originating in an EU directive that has not been rewritten, amended or reapproved explicitly by the end of the 2023 date would fall. About 3,800 pieces of legislation are targeted, including potentially more than 700 environmental laws and regulations.

As far as the environment is concerned, Rees-Mogg’s bill could, if adopted, remove the legal basis and effective protection for the UK’s Natura 2000 sites, destroy any chance of meeting legally binding climate and nature targets (including international targets), create uncertainty for vulnerable businesses, and shatter the long-term sustainability of our economy.

The Retained EU Law Bill committee heard on 8 November this year that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has only three full-time members of staff tasked with assessing the impact of the (at least) 570 laws that originated in the EU in that department alone. This is why I am calling on the government to drop this bill – to kill it stone-cold – for the sake of our environment and natural world.

If passed, the bill would enable ministers to cut environmental links with Europe. And this comes at a time when we should be strengthening them. For example, we should immediately rejoin the European Environment Agency, in which non-EU countries such as Norway, Turkey, Switzerland and Iceland have long participated as full members.

The government must drop this bill and commit to retaining or improving key legislation on wildlife protection, animal welfare, employment rights, environmental protections and food standards.

To keep up to speed with all the latest opinions and comment, sign up to our free weekly Voices Dispatches newsletter by clicking here

Not only does this undemocratic bill provide unchecked power to ministers to do as they please, but it is also totally undeliverable, and plays politics with critical laws that affect us every day. The government must remove the clauses allowing ministers to change the law without adequate democratic and parliamentary scrutiny.

We worked for decades to safeguard our land, air and water. We cannot let this government rush through a bill that seeks to undo what we have achieved.

But there is momentum. In their “Battle for the Soul of the Country”, the European Movement are running a petition to drop this bill and have committed to fighting it every step of the way. Join thousands of others and sign the petition to save our standards.

Stanley Johnson is an author, former MEP and environmental campaigner. In the run-up to the 2016 EU referendum, he co-chaired ‘Environmentalists for Europe’ with Baroness Barbara Young. He is the father of the Conservative MP and former prime minister Boris Johnson.