The latest instalment of the Greener UK Brexit Risk Tracker has been launched, and it shows that many aspects of the waste and resources sector are still classified as “high risk”.
The Tracker was first launched in June and is updated quarterly. Since it began, Greener UK highlights that we have already seen the following events: the publication and second reading of the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill; a major speech by environment secretary Michael Gove at the WWF headquarters; publication of several UK government position papers, including one on foreign policy and one on Northern Ireland and Ireland; and the Prime Minister’s third major speech on Brexit in Florence.
Under its Waste & Resources section, the Tracker explains: “Environment Secretary Michael Gove has made a welcome announcement that England will have a renewed strategy on waste and resources after a decade without a domestic strategy paper, but it remains unclear when this will be published, how far it will see us diverge from European practices, and whether or not we will adopt the measures in the European Circular Economy Package (CEP) and other waste and resource legislation.
“Most worryingly, Defra has already indicated it does not expect England to meet the CEP’s 2030 headline recycling target (which will be between 60 and 70 per cent): the department says the current targets are “too high to be achievable” despite Wales already achieving a level of 64 percent, and multiple reports and economic and environmental benefits of higher recycling. The UK is already on course to miss the existing target of 50 per cent by 2020.
It goes on to list the sector’s principles and strategies; legislation; and governance and “high risk” in its traffic light system, with cooperation; and capacity and funding as “medium risk”.
Overall, the sector has moved from “medium risk” in the first Tracker, to “high risk” in this latest update. You can see the details in its full report here
