Skip to content
Greenknight
  • Home
  • Services
    • Resource efficiency
    • Strategy
    • Stakeholder alignment
    • Materiality & risk
    • Audit and review
    • UN SDGs
    • Engaging people
    • Supply chain
    • Consortium building
    • Conferences and Events
    • Chairing and facilitation
  • About
    • Associate organisations
    • Publications
  • Contacts
  • Blog
  • Testimonials

‘Greener Hustings’ event

Last night I was fortunate to be part of an invited audience at the Royal Society in London to hear politicians from a number of parties put forward their position on the environment and respond to questions from the audience. The group behind the event, Greener UK, is an umbrella organisation comprising 13 environmentally-focused membership bodies such as the Woodland Trust and RSPB (full list at www.greeneruk.org) campaigning for effective environmental regulation after the UK leaves the EU. The event was ably and entertainingly hosted by Clive Anderson and featured Kate Parminter for the LibDems, Therese Coffey for the Conservatives, Barry Gardiner for Labour and Caroline Russell for the Greens (the latter 2 pictured below).

Greener Hustings

One of the key points in the discussion was the challenge of managing the transition from the current regime of CAP payments to a post-EU scheme. The significance of these payments varies from farm-to-farm but can be very significant to their commercial viability (see https://fullfact.org/economy/farming-subsidies-uk/). There was a surprising level of agreement across the parties that a future payment mechanism was necessary, and that it should be linked to protection of natural capital and provision of ecosystem services. The devil is in the detail, of course, but whatever the outcome of the election next week, we can expect to see something of this sort being put in place.

Cows at Roberts farm

A real-world illustration of what any new payment system needs to address can be found in Derbyshire’s Peak District. The landscape exists largely as a result of beef and dairy herds such as the one shown above, and attracts large numbers of visitors every year – between 17 and 27 million visitor days per annum depending on which figures you read. There is no direct linkage between the costs of running the farms that create much of the landscape and the benefits enjoyed by the visitors and it will be a challenge to achieve it fairly.

One of the concerns in any such scheme is that there may be unintended consequences from funds being withdrawn by parties which were not intended to be the primary recipients. Arguably, this has happened with solar PV FITS where large-scale solar farms rather than domestic roof-top installations have been significant beneficiaries. There is also controversy around some recipients of existing EU payments.

This is just one of the many significant changes in the UK’s agri-food system that will arise from Brexit. Staying close to developments will be vital for any businesses in the sector.

edie live
Collaboration in action

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Ethical Corp newsfeed

  • Society Watch: Drive to make ecocide an international crime gains momentum

    Ecocide is an emotive word. First used to describe the human and environmental devastation caused by the use of the defoliant Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, it became the subject of regular discussions at the United Nations throughout the 1970s. In 1998, the destruction of the environment was proposed as an international crime against peace, but ultimately wasn’t adopted as part of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) Rome Statute, which includes genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression.Image: Channels: Climate and EnergyNatural CapitalTags: Stop ecocide internationalInternational Criminal CourtRome statuteEU Environmental Crime Directive

GreenBiz newsfeed

  • Building the Circular Buildings Revolution
    on April 20, 2023 at 7:15 am

    Join GreenBiz for our conversation covering the approaches building product manufacturers are using to make products more circular and keep materials in play after their first use. The idea of buildings as material banks is not new, but deserves examination as it hasn’t taken hold at the scale we would expect.

Theme by Colorlib Powered by WordPress
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT