UK to revoke 570 environmental laws

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
23 Sep 2022 19:55

Will London be able to handle the cost of its actions in the coming phase?

Morpeth flood, UK, in 2010.

The British parliament is looking into the possibility of revoking 570 environmental laws from the national legislation system, as British media reported Friday.

The law, the Retained EU Law, or Revocation and Reform Bill of 2022, is aimed at dealing with the legislation by integrating it into national legislation or abolishing it completely.

"The Bill will sunset the majority of retained EU law so that it expires on 31st December 2023. All retained EU law contained in domestic secondary legislation and retained direct EU legislation will expire on this date unless otherwise preserved," London wrote in a statement.

According to The Guardian, if the bill goes through, 570 environmental laws, in addition to hundreds of others that tackle multiple issues would be scrapped and re-written.

This would leave wildlife unprotected and deregulated, which goes against post-Brexit promises to put nature's demise to a halt by 2030.

December 2023 is a very nearing deadline for the British government to patch up the consequences of the revoked laws, according to experts.

Sea level hikes in England to jeopardize 200k homes by 2050

In June, researchers at a British institute reported that the climate crisis and its consequences will have grave repercussions on Britons and that rising sea levels will put around 200,000 coastal homes at risk in England by 2050.

The shocking figure only represents homes that may not end up being saved because it would be very expensive to try and salvage them by means of establishing seawalls, for example.

The value of homes at risk is estimated at around tens of billions of British pounds, and the rising sea levels and their repercussions of sweeping floods are now almost inevitable due to the climate rapidly deteriorating.

The study came after Environment Agency chief Sir James Bevan warned that many homes are not worth salvaging due to it being either impossible or too costly, which would push whole communities out of the coastal area inland.