For the sake of our environment and the climate, the UK would be better off in the European Union than out, says Fiona Reynolds

Leaving the EU could threaten the UK environment Alastair Grant/AP/Press Association Images

While immigration and economics dominate the Brexit debate, there is another issue that needs discussing – the fate of environmental protections that keep our air and water clean, preserve treasured natural habitats and address global warming.

Most of them were agreed at the European level. Brexit would throw them into doubt.

After 35 years of campaigning for the protection of landscape, nature and cultural heritage in this country, I’m clear where I stand. If we hadn’t been a member of the EU over the past 40 odd years we would not have the cleaner beaches, improved rivers, safeguarded landscapes and less polluted air we enjoy today. Could these be undermined? It is possible.


Negotiated together

These protections were not imposed by an aggressive “Europe”, as critics of the EU might suggest, but negotiated by us, in collaboration with the other member states, for the good of our citizens and our collective future.

And with the looming pressures of climate change and a growing world population with complex and multiple needs, we need more scientific, policy and political collaboration, not less.

The world is getting more vulnerable as it becomes more connected. Distant events can disrupt us. We’re using resources as if we had three planets, not one; and we face huge challenges driven by political and economic uncertainties. As a result, many communities around the world, including in Europe, are facing flooding, drought or pressures on scarce resources.

If we care about the future of our planet and unborn generations we simply have to cooperate; we can’t find solutions to these problems on our own.

Platform for progress

Being in the EU is not, of course, of itself a solution. It will only be a platform for environmental and scientific collaboration if we continue to push it in that direction.

And of course not everything it does is positive: like many environmentalists, I spent years campaigning for changes to EU agricultural and fisheries policy to stop them damaging wildlife, landscapes and cultural heritage. But we negotiated beneficial changes to those policies. Despite its shortcomings, being a member of the EU has worked for the British environment.

Talk of Brexit is usually sold as an appealing way of regaining our national identity. But this is an isolationist view. We have a long history of working with others and much success in doing so.

At a time when we need to think about our future as citizens of a shared planet, Brexit would be an inconceivably risky step to take.