Party conference session kicked off with the Liberal Democrat autumn conference in Brighton after the party’s historic win of 72 seats at the General Election in July. Over a busy two days we attended events on the UK-EU relationship, a packed event on pesticides organised by PAN UK and the RSPB and Green Liberal Democrat and green groups receptions.
There was much discussion over what the party wants to achieve over the next five years. With 25 out of the 72 MPs affiliated to the Green Liberal Democrats, holding the new Labour Government to account on its environmental agenda featured prominently in this debate.
The following weekend we were in Liverpool for the Labour Party Conference, where we held a fringe event with SERA, Labour’s Environment Campaign: ‘A new chemical romance?, How closer UK-EU collaboration could benefit the environment?
Chloe Alexander from CHEM Trust was joined on the panel by Chair Will Hutton, MPs Stella Creasy (Chair of the Labour Movement for Europe) and Toby Perkins (Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee), Emilien Gasc, from the Delegation of the European Union to the United Kingdom, Michael Nicholson, from the think tank Institute for European Environmental Policy and Francesca Ginley from the Marine Conservation Society.
The discussion focused on Labour’s plans for a closer relationship with the EU and the benefits this could bring to our shared environment and climate. The joint briefing we produced with the IEEP set out some of these shared benefits which could be realised while keeping to Labour’s red lines of not entering the EU’s single market or customs union.
Improved protections from harmful chemicals formed the perfect case example of shared benefits. Chloe Alexander and Francesca Ginley outlined the severity of the chemical pollution problem in the UK and the inadequacy of the UK’s post-Brexit regulation in addressing this crisis, arguing that alignment with EU protections from harmful substances provides the opportunity to peg our standards to the highest in the world.
Michael Nicholson from the IEEP set out areas of environment and climate policy where the UK and EU could be working together to improve our shared environment, including highlighting the benefits to the UK from reengaging with European scientific bodies such as the European Chemical Agency.
Both Labour MPs on the panel underlined the importance of a closer UK-EU relationship to tackling the climate and nature crises. Stella Creasy set out how the EU has gone much further in protecting the environment than the UK – from tackling the environmental impacts of fast fashion, to banning harmful pesticides -highlighting how collaboration and cooperation with the EU are key to improving our shared environment. Toby Perkins also underscored the need for much closer collaboration, including the benefits of engaging with the European Chemicals Agency and how greater alignment with the EU would be to our benefit Emilien Gasc, on behalf of the EU embassy, said the EU was open to exploring deeper cooperation with the UK on the environment
We were pleased to see such a positive acknowledgement of the importance of the future relationship with Europe for the environment in the UK and exploration of the many benefits this could bring, from chemicals to climate policies, fast fashion and pesticides. Panellists expressed hope for a future where the UK and EU engage in a ‘race to the top’ on environmental standards. We are grateful to SERA, who we partnered with for the event, for all their support, and Will Hutton for his excellent Chairing.
As well as hosting our own event, the CHEM Trust team attended some of the hundreds of fringe panels at the Labour conference, ranging from the excellent ‘How do we fix river pollution without breaking the bank?’ put on by the Rivers Trust, to a fascinating talk on the health impacts of pesticides with speakers including Pesticide Action Network UK, Women’s Environment Network and Breast Cancer UK.
It was a packed few weeks for the CHEM Trust UK team. Watch this space for next year’s update!
CHEM Trust’s Labour fringe was covered by ENDS Report.
