The UK is using Brexit to weaken crucial environmental protections and is falling behind the EU despite Labour’s manifesto pledge not to dilute standards, new analysis reveals. Green MP Ellie Chowns tells the Guardian: “The Green party warned that Brexit could see the UK reduce regulations in a race to the bottom. Unfortunately, the election of a Labour government a year ago hasn’t prevented that happening… We could have clean rivers, breathable air, farmers encouraged to work with nature and consumer products designed to last and be recycled. We could work more closely with our EU neighbours and join the customs union to better align our regulations upwards. And that is what it boils down to – a political choice. The government has made the wrong choices and needs to change direction.”
Ellie also reacted to Professor Steve Koonin, former chief scientist at BP and now Trump advisor, declaring that the UK public is being “deliberately ill-informed” about the government’s plans to cut emissions and claiming net zero is “killing the economy for nothing”. She told Desmog: “Climate denial is at the heart of the Trump presidency with oil pumping through its veins. Koonin is a former chief scientist with BP, in denial about the realities of climate change. Such dangerous and toxic views – driven by self-interest, not by science – have no place in politics.”