Environment and the level playing field

The House of Lords EU Environment Sub-Committee recently ran a short inquiry to explore what is at stake on the environmental and climate level playing field in the UK-EU negotiations.

It had a particular focus on the objectives of level playing field provisions and how they should be constructed and enforced.

The UK and the EU have committed to maintain high standards, and IEMA believes these could be the basis for an agreement, which could provide:

• A consistent policy landscape against which investments can be made with confidence
• The maintenance of high standards underpinning free trade in goods and services, and the avoidance of environmental regulatory barriers
• Good environmental outcomes – recognising the benefits that flow from natural capital
• Ongoing development of policies that support better environmental outcomes
• A basis for UK-EU collaboration in order to promote high environmental standards in international negotiations.

A 'landing zone' for the agreement could be based on: commitment to non-regression of protections; confirmation that how protections are achieved may evolve over time and that different approaches may be adopted; and independent domestic enforcement of each party's level-playing field obligations.

You can read IEMA's inquiry submission at bit.ly/3kiHXDs

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