Wales - Challenges and opportunities for post- Brexit environmental governance - OCTOBER 2018

Currently, the devolved nations and the UK government meet to discuss and coordinate ‘devolved’ and ‘reserved’ powers in the Joint Ministerial Committee (JMC), which was created in 1999 to facilitate co-ordination between the UK government and the devolved governments.18 The JMC is comprised of a set of committees composed of ministers from the UK and devolved governments. [...] As noted above, the UK government has committed itself to a ‘Green Brexit’ and pushed ahead with the adoption of the 25 YEP and a governance and principles consultation to address concerns that Brexit could lead to an environmental governance gap and weaker environmental standards.25 However, neither the 25 YEP nor the consultation applied to the devolved nations. [...] The greater size of the English economy and the greater familiarity with it in Whitehall may lead to decisions that fail to take account of the diverging needs of the different nations of the UK. [...] Such divergence may have implications for citizens wishing to access environmental data under the terms of the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters.39 EU institutions such as the Commission and the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) provide ways to hold member state and devolved governments to. [...] However, the way that Brexit has unfolded has served to obscure the common environmental ambitions that unite the Welsh and UK governments and heightened the risk that the environment will be downgraded on the policy agenda.