On 30 January 2024 the Welsh Government issued a White Paper setting out its proposals for new legislation for the Senedd on Environmental Principles, Governance and Biodiversity Targets. The consultation will run until 30 April 2024.
For the background to the earlier consultation on these proposals, see my earlier article of 28 October 2023 on ‘Wales’ Environmental Governance and Biodiversity Targets Bill’.
It is proposed that –
The Bill will embed in Welsh law the key environmental principles that applied under EU law before Brexit, that is -
(i) Integration (of environmental protection into policies and activities - see Article 11 Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union ‘TFEU’); and four further environmental principles (contained in Article 191(2) TFEU), namely -
(ii) Precautionary principle;
(iii) Prevention;
(iv) Rectification at source;
(v) Polluter pays.
It is proposed that these should be framed by an overarching objective of achieving a high level of environmental protection and improving the quality of the environment in Wales, in particular to contribute to sustainable development.
As currently proposed, these principles would apply to Welsh Ministers, but not necessarily to all Welsh public bodies. That is one area likely to be the subject of scrutiny during the consultation.
The Bill will establish a new body to oversee compliance with environmental law by Welsh public authorities, with a wider remit and powers than the current Interim Environmental Protection Assessor for Wales ‘IEPAW’.
For Member States of the EU, implementation of EU environmental law is overseen by the European Commission, and ultimately enforced by the Court of Justice of the European Union. When the UK left the EU after Brexit, the component parts of the United Kingdom have had to propose their own replacement machinery to deliver comparable oversight of the implementation and compliance with environmental law.
For England and Northern Ireland, this is now undertaken by the Office for Environmental Protection set up under the (UK) Environment Act 2021. For Scotland, it is done by Environmental Standards Scotland set up under the European Union (Continuity)(Scotland) Act 2021. Establishment of the new body for Wales will therefore be the final part of the legislative jigsaw to provide oversight of environmental law across the United Kingdom.
The Bill will introduce a number of targets for the protection and restoration of biodiversity, to address the “ongoing nature emergency” declared by the Senedd in 2021.
As currently proposed in the White Paper, there would be a headline ‘nature positive’ target in the Bill, currently expressed in very general terms, supported by more specific biodiversity targets to be set by Welsh Ministers in secondary legislation. Wales’ Nature Recovery Strategy and Nature Recovery Action Plan would also be put on a statutory footing.
There are specific references in the White Paper to the 4 goals and 23 targets contained in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which was agreed in December 2023 by 188 countries, including the UK under the Convention on Biological Diversity. Wales’s new legislation will therefore be some of the first to be enacted since the conclusion of that Framework, and the way in which it delivers the Framework’s targets should be of much interest.
The proposals build on, but go beyond, the sustainability provisions contained in the Environment (Wales) Act 2016, the Agriculture (Wales) Act 2023, the Environment (Air Quality and Soundscapes)(Wales) Bill and particularly the Well-being of Future Generation (Wales) Act 2015.