Red alert for nature and environment following leave vote  

St Margaret's Bay, White Cliffs of Dover - 2

St Margaret's Bay, White Cliffs of Dover - 2

Image by MrT HK



Today’s (24 June) referendum result for Britain to leave the EU means that many vital European environmental protections will cease to apply. Friends of the earth will be campaigning to make sure that these protections are upheld and not watered down, despite our exit from the EU. 
 
Craig Bennett, Friends of the Earth’s CEO, said: 
“The referendum may be over but many of the difficult debates are only just beginning. 

“The environment must be at the heart of our negotiations with Europe and how we create a positive future for our country. We cannot let the UK return to the days of ‘the dirty man of Europe’. Protections for our birds and wildlife, our beaches and rivers, must not be sacrificed in the name of cutting away so-called EU ‘red tape’.  

“The environment was rarely mentioned during the referendum but it must now move up the political agenda. With urgent issues like climate change, air pollution and destruction of the natural world already impacting this generation, not just the next, we don’t have time for the environment to take a back seat through years of negotiations. 


ENDS 
Notes: 

  • Friends of the Earth’s position paper on EU membership ahead of the referendum is here: https://www.foe.co.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/policy-position-european-union-membership-81703.pdf 
  • Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland receives 90% of its funding from individuals and less than 1% from the EU. In the 2014-15 financial year, Friends of the Earth received just £15,023 from the EU. 
  • About Friends of the Earth: For more than 40 years we’ve seen that the wellbeing of people and planet go hand in hand – and it’s been the inspiration for our campaigns. Together with thousands of people like you we’ve secured safer food and water, defended wildlife and natural habitats, championed the move to clean energy and acted to keep our climate stable. Be a Friend of the Earth – see things differently. For further information visit www.foe.co.uk, follow us at @wwwfoecouk, or like our Facebook page.

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Greenpeace reaction to UK decision to leave EU

Reacting to the vote to leave the EU, Greenpeace UK executive director John Sauven said:

"Many of the laws that make our drinking and bathing water safe, our air cleaner, our fishing industry more sustainable and our climate safer now hang by a thread. But Greenpeace is determined that this country does not go back to year zero on environmental protection.

"Over the coming months we all need to demand that the government replaces European regulations protecting nature with new UK laws that are just as strong.

"There is a very real fear that Cameron's successor will come from the school that supports a bonfire of anti-pollution protections. The climate change-denying wing of the Conservative Party will be strengthened by this vote for Brexit. That means the green movement, indeed every Briton who values a clean and safe environment, may need to stand up for nature in the face of an attack on the natural world.

"The environment barely featured in this campaign. Whoever comes to occupy Downing Street does not have a mandate to gut the environmental laws that we all rely on to protect us from pollution."

 

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Global Justice Now press release

24 June 2016
Referendum response: "A world of uncertainty in which we must now navigate"

 

Responding to the news that the majority of people in the UK had almost certainly voted to leave the EU, Nick Dearden the director of Global Justice Now said:

"Britain’s decision to leave the European Union opens up a world of uncertainty in which we must now navigate in a positive direction.

"It’s hardly surprising that people have voiced such distrust towards the EU when it negotiates exploitative trade deals like TTIP, visits economic destruction on its own member states, and treats refugees as if they were criminals.  But the mainstream ‘leave’ campaigns have done a great deal of damage by pandering to nationalism, building a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment and fostering the spurious notion that outside the EU we can return to an age when Britain was the world’s foremost ‘great power’.  

"The British government has done everything possible to push the most extreme version of TTIP, just as they’ve fought against pretty much every financial regulation in the EU, from bankers bonuses to a financial transaction tax. High-profile supporters of the Brexit campaign have repeatedly said that they believe the UK would be able to realise a more “ambitious” and faster free trade deal than TTIP if we stood alone.

"Under these conditions, it’s even more important that organisations and activists redouble their efforts to oppose toxic trade deals, corporate power grabs and above all defend the rights and dignity of migrants."
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