Yorkshire Wildlife Trust CEO: Government must rethink dangerous environmental plans

Last week’s mini budget threatened the most fundamental legal protections for our environment. That is despite a commitment to the environment at the heart of their 2019 manifesto.

I have never witnessed such a swell of anger and shock from across the environment sector.

The reactions we are seeing this week from RSPB, The National Trust and many others is a reaction to the fundamental disregard that the new Government has shown, assuming it can ride roughshod over protection and promises.

Broad, placatory assurances from Defra in response, are still alarmingly scant on detail and don’t address real concerns.

The refuge, peace and hope that our greenspaces and wildlife provided to a nation in crisis during the peak of the Covid pandemic seem forgotten.

The complete disregard for our magnificent wild landscapes and wildlife began with a lifting of the ban on fracking.

This could have a big impact on Yorkshire’s landscape as shelved plans are dusted off for parts of our region.

Instead, we need to see the UK government commit to reducing energy demand, improving energy efficiency measures, and investing in

renewable energy.

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust believe that fracking has far-reaching environmental impacts and has a negative effect on action to counteract climate change.

Lifting the ban on fracking would therefore be in direct conflict with the UK’s legally binding commitments to reach net zero by 2050.

In addition to habitat loss, fragmentation and disturbance, fracking will require large amounts of water – a resource Yorkshire cannot spare or risk contaminating, especially as we start to see increased chances of drought because of our changing climate.

New planning laws and ‘investment zones’ risk a free-for-all for wildlife, weakening protections and threatening our most precious species.

The new Retained EU Law Bill could see the end of basic protections nature has relied upon for years – from the rules that protect hundreds of species and wildlife sites to the laws that stop pollution in our rivers and streams.

If the Prime Minister’s claim to BBC Radio Leeds that “We’re putting this country on a better trajectory for the long term” is true, then the assets of our natural world must be part of the flight plan.

It is short-sighted for the Government to dismiss fundamental environmental protections as ‘burdens;’ we know that our economy depends upon the resources provided by nature – for food production, jobs, materials, health and wellbeing.

Environmental regulations like the Clean Air Act exist to protect us and have been fundamental to creating healthier places to live.

A strong economy is underpinned by a healthy, attractive environment.

As mental and physical health concerns are on the rise, are we really going to attract ‘new talent’ into our businesses by locating ourselves in enterprise zones that are free from the regulation that protects the very fabric of life?

The Government is also reviewing the new Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS).

ELMS is a new, green and fair scheme which recognises the role farmers play in protecting and restoring our natural world and should be rightly rewarded for doing this.

The new scheme benefits and is supported by most farmers because it rewards them properly for moving to a more sustainable form of farming.

It provides tools to deal with climate change and build sustainability back into our farming systems – restoring degraded soils which is vital for the survival of farming.

This latest government announcement could overturn years of work and discussion between farmers and environmental groups and revert us to an unsustainable and outdated agricultural model.

It represents a 180-degree U turn on the Government’s manifesto promise.

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust is a membership organisation, and our 46,000 passionate and loyal members will not be quiet on this fundamental threat to Yorkshire’s incredible wildlife and wild places.

We join millions of others across the UK calling for the government to rethink this dangerous new agenda.

Local Wildlife Trusts are fundamentally collaborative by nature, and seek positive partnerships and ways to bring people, business, governments together to make a difference for wildlife and people.

Yorkshire people do not take threats to their local wildlife lightly either.

And let’s not forget the strength in numbers of our young people who campaigned and took to the streets for better environmental protections and a response to the climate and ecological emergency.

The Government was elected on a manifesto promise to deliver the most ambitious environmental programme of any country on earth, including committing to a moratorium on fracking and supporting farmers to restore nature.

They are failing in their public and moral duties to current communities and future generations to steward a healthy environment.

They are breaking manifesto promises and throwing out one of the best opportunities Brexit gave us; to decide how we steward our own land more progressively and productively for the benefit of our communities.

With our members, volunteers, partners and supporters we will be holding the government to account and looking carefully at the detail of what comes next.

Our wildlife and the environment we all inhabit, needs Yorkshire’s support now more than ever.