23 May 2019

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s (MHCLG) review of current planning policy for sustainable drainage (SuDS) in England has recently been published – but we question whether this exercise could have had more to do with validating the Government’s current policy approach, rather than an accurate and critical review of the application and […]

23 May 2019

‘The Guardian has updated its style guide to introduce terms that more accurately describe the environmental crises facing the world.  Instead of “climate change” the preferred terms are “climate emergency, crisis or breakdown” and “global heating” is favoured over “global warming”, although the original terms are not banned. “We want to ensure that we are being scientifically […]

23 May 2019

The Environmental Audit Committee launches an inquiry on the impacts of invasive species and their management. Non-native species are those living outside their natural range which have arrived there by human activity, either deliberate or accidental. Of these, invasive species are those that negatively affect native biodiversity, ecosystem services and public health, through predation, competition […]

18 May 2019

Defra ‘Environment Minister Thérèse Coffey has published the first progress report of its landmark 25 Year Environment Plan indicating that, in the first year alone, 90 per cent of the plan’s actions have been delivered or are being progressed. Over the last 12 months, the government, amongst other actions, has: set out plans to ban […]

18 May 2019

Bob Earll ‘The NCC have been remarkably silent on marine issues in their 7 year existence. It looks like one new NCC member – Mel Austen – has changed this. That’s progress. This report comes close on the heels of a host of other reports*. It makes one wonder quite what the role of NCC […]

18 May 2019

EEA ‘There is a shared vision to achieve clean, non toxic seas but their contamination with synthetic substances as well as heavy metals continues to be a large-scale problem in Europe. According to a new European Environment Agency (EEA) report, between 75 and 96 % of the assessed area of Europe’s regional seas have a […]

18 May 2019

Defra ‘The British Overseas Territories (‘OTs’) are globally significant in their ecological richness, containing over 90% of the UK’s marine and terrestrial biodiversity. Constitutional responsibility for decision making in many policy areas relevant to biodiversity and conservation lie with the OTs, which are highly dependent on the assets provided by their natural environment, terrestrial and marine […]