Environment Bill introduced

Carrier bags, greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity are amongst the areas
targeted by a wide-ranging Environment Bill, which was introduced this week.

Now that the election excitement is dying down, it's time to turn to more mundane matters.

Hot on the heels of the Heritage Bill, Natural Resources Minister, Carl Sargeant (Lab, Alyn & Deeside) introduced the latest Welsh law. Bill here (pdf), explanatory memorandum here (pdf).

What are the arguments for an Environment Bill?

The overarching goal of the Bill is to bring together and enshrine current long-term policy objectives in a single law. This includes management of natural resources and the environment, meeting UN conventions on biodiversity and goals to decrease both waste and carbon emissions. It also complements the goals set out in the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act 2015.

The explanatory memorandum says a study of more than 3,100 native species in the UK found over 60% of them were in decline and more than 10% are at risk of extinction. The Bill will give the "variety of living things", and their habitats, statutory recognition. The Bill also updates the functions and purpose of Natural Resources Wales to put good management of natural resources at its heart.

Another important area is climate change. There's global agreement to limit global warming to 2C and the UK is currently committed – via the Climate Change Act 2008 – to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050. The Bill sets statutory targets for Wales along the same lines.

There's also a proposed expansion of rules governing carrier bag charges in Wales, which were introduced in 2011. It's implied charges could be extended to include "bags for life" after concerns that  offers by supermarkets are leading to them being used as "throwaway" single-use bags by accident or habit. Because some are made from heavier duty plastics they take just as long, if not longer, to biodegrade than single use bags.

What's included in the Environment Bill?

Natural Resources Wales is set for an expanded role.
(Pic : monmouthshiregreenweb.co.uk)

Management of Natural Resources

The Bill :

• Places a statutory duty on Natural Resources Wales (NRW) to "apply the principles of sustainable management" to natural resources. "Natural resources" is defined as including minerals, ecological features (i.e wildlife), geological features (land, sea and coast) and the climate.
• Places a duty on public bodies to work to improve biodiversity, and a duty to report on what they've done in this regard by 2019 and every three years afterwards.
• Places a duty on Welsh Ministers to publish a list of any species in Wales, and their habitats, which are important to maintain biodiversity (in consultation with NRW). It also places a duty on them to publish a national strategy on natural resources – reviewed after each National Assembly election.
• Places a duty on NRW to :
• publish a "state of the nation" report on the current status of, and all of the actions taken to improve, management of natural resources and biodiversity by the end of each calendar year preceding a National Assembly election (i.e December 2020, December 2025).
• prepare "area statements" to outline the opportunities, risks and priorities for natural resource management in a particular geographical area. It also gives the Welsh Ministers the power to direct public bodies, through guidance (i.e. local councils, health boards, national park authorities, Future Generations Commissioner), to take any actions outlined in an area statement.
• Gives NRW the power to enter into land management agreements with interested parties or landowners, placing obligations or restrictions on how they use the land (i.e. tell a farmer not to cultivate a certain patch of land). This also applies to Crown land, but has to be agreed by the "appropriate authority" (i.e. The Crown Estate).
• Extends NRW powers to give them the authority or conduct, or make arrangements for, experiments or research in relation to its functions.

Climate Change

The Bill :

• Sets a statutory target for the Wales to achieve an 80% reduction in net greenhouse gas (carbon dioxide, methane, CFCs etc.) emissions by 2050 (compared to a 1990-1995 baseline).
• Places a duty on Welsh Ministers to introduce regulations to :
• set interim year emission targets
• set a "carbon budget" (the maximum amount of greenhouse gas emissions per year) for four/five-yearly intervals ("budgetary period"), starting with 2016-2020
• establish an advisory body to advise and report on progress made to meet targets
• Places a duty on Welsh Ministers to publish a report for each "budgetary period" setting out how they intend to meet gas emission targets over that period.
• Gives Welsh Ministers the power to "bank" or "borrow" up to 1% of the carbon budget, moving them between budgetary periods (after consulting with the advisory body).
• Means that regulations relating to the advisory body or international carbon reporting (i.e. EU, UN) will automatically come into effect unless the Assembly objects (negative procedure); all other regulations relating to climate change will be subject to Assembly approval (affirmative procedure).
• Places a duty on Welsh Ministers to publish, at the end of each budgetary period, a report to the National Assembly accounting for the carbon budget over that period, and explanations as to why a carbon budget was or wasn't met. If a budget isn't met, they must lay a report in front of the National Assembly explaining how they'll compensate for excess emissions in the next period.

Carrier Bag Charges

The Bill :

• Defines "carrier bag" as meaning any bag used to take goods away from where they're sold, or enable goods to be delivered.
• Gives Welsh Ministers the power to introduce regulations to require sellers of goods to charge a minimum price for any "carrier bag", or particular types of carrier bag.
• Means any new regulations have to be approved by the National Assembly, but also allows for joint regulations covering EnglandandWales to be introduced (as a carrier bag charge won't be introduced in England until October).
• Sets out that, like the current charging scheme, proceeds should go to charity.
• Means that shops/sellers which breach any new regulations (i.e. not charging or not keeping records properly) could be liable for a fine of up to £5,000 (with a right to appeal).

Waste Disposal

Disposing of food waste in public sewers will become illegal -
hopefully preventing "fatbergs" like the one above in Cardiff.
(Pic : BBC Wales)

The Bill :

• Promotes separation of waste by (effectively) placing a duty on local authorities to collect recyclables separately.
• Bans the disposal of food waste in sewers by businesses.
• Gives Welsh Ministers the power to create regulations preventing certain types of recoverable/recyclable waste from being incinerated.

Fisheries, Marine Licensing & Water Management

The Bill :

• Gives Welsh Ministers the power to issue, vary or revoke orders in relation to shellfisheries (i.e. cockle beds) to protect or preserve sensitive marine sites.
• Changes the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 to formally transfer functions such as advice/guidance and fees for marine licences (which are needed to undertake any sort of construction at sea or on the shore) to the Welsh Ministers.
• Establishes a Floods & Coastal Erosion Committee to advise Welsh Ministers.
• Withdraws a requirement to publish certain notices relating to drainage boards in local newspapers.
• Gives Welsh Ministers, or someone working on their behalf, power of entry to carry out drainage work or to ensure orders relating to drainage are complied with.

How much will the Environment Bill cost? What are the benefits?

Expect to see significant changes to the current carrier bag charge.
(Pic : Wilkinsons)

There are several elements to this, but it's worth looking at the specifics of the carrier bag charge changes first  - I'd imagine that what most of the people reading this (heh) are interested in. According to the explanatory memorandum, under the Welsh Government's preferred option - applying different minimum charges to different types of carrier bag – the estimated charges are:

• 21p charge for a 6p "bag for life" (total cost 27p)
• 63p charge for a 36p "bag for life" (total cost 99p)
• 65p charge for a £2 cotton bag (total cost £2.65)

If you're really interested in this (i.e a supermarket manager or an environmental professional) there's more detailed information (with graphs etc.) between pages 174-219 of the memorandum (pdf). In total, the changes to bag charges are expected to cost £123.8million, but expected to produce benefits of £132million – which includes a £66.8million increase in charitable donations and an extra £19.25million in tax revenues. I don't know if these are EnglandandWales figures or not.

The overall totals, once all measures are included, estimate the Bill will have around £291million in costs, but £359million in benefits, some of which are spread over 10 years. Better management of natural resources, however, was said to have potential benefits of up to £2billion per year – though the memorandum cautions that the figure is "illustrative and not considered robust enough" for final inclusion in the monetised figures.

The (Flower) Power People

In some respects you can say the Bill doesn't go far enough, in others
you can say it goes too far, or doesn't seem to be backed by evidence.
(Pic : mrw.co.uk)

If this Bill passes as is, Natural Resources Wales are about to become a powerful body, perhaps akin to An Bord Pleanála in the Republic of Ireland (though with a different remit). You also have to wonder if this Bill treads a lot of the same ground as the Future Generations Act 2015 (Wales : The Next Generation) and whether some of the provisions in the Act are going to end up causing a fog of confusing and competing clashes of priorities – housing/the economy and the environment for instance.

There's another problem in that NRW has had some high-profile internal problems since it was created through a merger of the Environment Agency, Forestry Commission and Countryside Council for Wales. As raised by Leader of the Opposition, Andrew Davies AM (Con, South Wales Central), in the Senedd (clip) you've got to wonder if NRW currently have the resources (or mental strength) to deal with the extra responsibilities that could be coming its way.

Although there's a beefing-up of responsibilities to maintain biodiversity there are no statutory targets (unlike climate change) – and this was raised by Llyr Gruffydd AM (Plaid, North Wales) during the Assembly debate (clip). Policy aspirations like "improving biodiversity" have appeared in almost every single environmental or rural development plan/strategy to the point of being meaningless, like the word "sustainability/sustainable" itself.

William Powell AM (Lib Dem, Mid & West Wales) said the climate change targets are "unambitious and simply don't go far enough", calling for a zero carbon limit and statutory biodiversity targets.

A zero carbon Wales sounds ambitious but would be incredibly difficult to achieve considering that it's highly likely that a fair chunk of Welsh carbon emissions come from three sources : agriculture, Port Talbot steelworks and Aberthaw Power Station.

A bit of good news is that the Welsh Government have listened to previous concerns which arose during the Winter 2012-2013 floods, and are effectively establishing a National Flood Forum like the ones in Scotland and England - which is something AMs had previously called for (Time to take flooding seriously?).

It also looks as though the Welsh Government have decided that separate collection of recyclables is the way to go and are making it obligatory. In their inquiry on recycling (Womble Nation), the National Assembly's Environment Committee determined this wasn't the case, with the Welsh Government failing to provide the necessary evidence on whether separate collection is better than other forms of waste collection. I'm going to assume that evidence has been found or the Minister can expect a grilling from the Committee.

The Bill will also inevitably drag up the issue of opencast mining again (The Abyss Staring Back At Wales) as minerals are included in the new, formalised NRW role. I neglected to mention quarrying in previous posts too – which is just as disruptive. There are a number of quarries in and around Bridgend and western Vale of Glamorgan, with one or two of the quarries around Stormy Down/South Cornelly in particular having not been restored properly either it seems.