ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how a separation might affect environmental and sustainability policies and issues. In the build-up to the 23 June referendum in 2016, there was very little focus on environmental or sustainability issues, at least at the national level, and yet the implications for the UK's environment could be far-reaching. A significant part of the EU influence on UK environmental policy and practice comes through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the direct cash payments to landowners that influence what goes on in the countryside. To keep pressure on government during Brexit negotiations, 13 of the UK's main environmental organisations, with a combined membership of 7.9 million people, have formed Greener UK. This is in order to use the Brexit negotiations to make the UK a world leader on the environment, and MPs are being urged to support this through the Green Alliance pledge.
