Northern Ireland’s unique post-Brexit position has of course prompted much debate about ramifications for jobs, trade, investment and the peace process. However, there is one issue that has been pushed way down the pecking-order, sadly typical in our part of the world: the environment.

Recently, a coalition of environmental groups working together as Nature Matters NI warned Westminster that, in the absence of government, we are lagging seriously behind the rest of the UK in regards to environmental planning for the future. Ironic, given that the collapse of the Assembly was due to a mismanaged Renewable Heating Initiative.

In truth, our track record in the field has always been fairly dismal and our relationship with Mother Nature hasn’t been on great terms for a long time. I imagine she’d like to bash a few heads together on that Super Stormont Deadlock game too. The scope of possibilities for things going awry is compounded by the fact that Northern Ireland is currently the only part of the UK – indeed, the only part of the EU apart from Greece – without an independent environmental protection agency.

 

The role of the EU

Although environment is a devolved issue, devolution occurred in the context of EU membership, and all of the national and international targets and regulations that come with it. As such, the vast majority of environmental laws throughout the UK are based on EU directives, of which there are over 650 pertaining to the subject. Undeniably, the championing of environmental issues and subsequent governance on these matters has been one of the EU’s greatest successes. It is regarded as an ambitious leader in the field of international environmental policy.

Bearing in mind that Northern Ireland’s two main parties have next to nothing to say about the environment in their most recent manifestos, I would argue that without EU incentives, enforcement and, frankly, the threat of fines, Northern Ireland would be in a much worse environmental situation than at present.

To highlight some of its achievements at home, EU membership has meant that Northern Ireland’s recycling rates have steadily increased, in 2017 standing at 47.1% of household waste after an EU target for 50% by 2020 was set. Through the Interreg VE project, the EU provided 4.6 million euros to help protect the habitats of Northern Ireland’s wading birds and butterflies as well as establishing the innovative Centre for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technologies (CREST) in Enniskillen.

 

A ‘Green Brexit’?

For those who argued that Brexit would be an opportunity for Northern Ireland to regain control of its environment, a power-grab by Westminster is now proving to be a real worry. After all, the 2019 budget for Northern Ireland had to be imposed by Westminster in the midst of the ongoing stalemate. Relationships with the devolved governments will need to be completely reassessed, with environment, agriculture and fisheries subject to centralised UK control, at least at the beginning.

It is in many ways understandable in order to ensure a smooth withdrawal and strong ‘internal market’ but with suggestions that a fear of Sinn Féin is behind the proposed centralisation, this issue looks set to be very contentious.

Through gritted teeth I admit that Michael Gove has proved somewhat of a revelation in his role as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, consistently promising a ‘Green Brexit’ and winning praise from NGOs such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. However, even after amendments there are still concerns that his proposed environmental watchdog will lack the required legal powers to hold the government to account and we have no idea yet to what degree it will apply in here.

 

Cause for concern

Two issues that reveal a lot about our institutional failings on environmental issues are the Lough Beg Wetlands dispute and huge scale illegal waste disposal on Mobuoy Road in Derry. The furore over plans to build a stretch of motorway, the A6, through the Lough Beg wetlands, garnered international attention and has been described as Northern Ireland’s Standing Rock. Despite being both a Special Protection Area and a Ramsar site, denoting its global importance in nature conservation, the Department of Infrastructure under Sinn Féin’s Chris Hazzard, chose this route without due consideration of viable alternatives and based on Environmental Impact Assessments over ten years old.

The area west of the Bann has long suffered from a dearth of investment but local residents joined in protests that this was not the best way route forward. Before he died, our cherished national poet was also very vocal in speaking out against the plans as the road will slice straight through ‘Heaney Country’, desecrating an area of great cultural significance as well as natural.

In a case of not seeing the forest for the trees, considering that the Seamus Heaney arts centre HomePlace received over 40,000 visitors from almost 20 countries in its first year, a severe lack of joined up thinking has been displayed on how environment and tourism intersect. The roadworks have started but activist Chris Murphy is now taking an appeal to the European Court of Justice after the Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal, arguing that Article 6 of Directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora, has been breached. This extra layer of the appeals process and accountability will no longer be available to us after the Brexit transitional period at the end of 2020 or as soon as 2019 in the instance of no withdrawal deal being reached. Again the absence of an independent environmental protection agency comes into play here as in this instance, the Department of Infrastructure was able to act with impunity, as promoter, developer and authoriser in one.

The River Faughan, another Area of Special Scientific Interest and Special Area for Conservation, has been the unfortunate location of Europe’s biggest illegal landfill site. Mobuoy has had over one million tonnes of domestic and construction waste dumped in a huge organised crime scandal, stemming from failure to investigate illegal quarrying.

Concerns were raised as far back as 2003 but the waste remained undiscovered by inspectors, and the Mills Report was not published until 2013, highlighting the frightening scale of waste crime in the area. Even though the waste run-off constitutes a risk to public health with the potential to contaminate Derry’s drinking water supply and a call for a public inquiry received cross-party support in 2014, little concrete action has been taken. Contracts were awarded by the DUP’s Michelle McIlveen with an implementation plan to be in place by spring 2017, but squabbles among different governmental departments have meant that any plans may need to wait on the appointment of a new minister.

 

Weak enforcement

In response to the frightening weaknesses in our environmental crime enforcement, then Environment Minister Mark H Durkan said in 2015, “Without strong coordinated North-South action, criminals will continue to rob our economies of vast sums of money though the sale of illegal fuel and to poison and pollute our environment and people.”

Well, in the case of a hard Brexit, that coordination along the border won’t only affect farming and its associated movement of feed and livestock or imports of electricity from the Republic which we heavily on. Losing the European Arrest Warrant will also leave the area highly vulnerable to waste crime. The cost of hundreds of millions of pounds that will be paid out in cleaning up our government’s mess would have been completely avoidable had the environment been given its rightful due in the first place.

Sinn Féin’s habit of barking worse than they bite on progressive ideals combined with the DUP’s favouring of deregulation and scorn for both types of green politics, create a perfect storm. The Aarhus Convention of 1998 seems to have been well and truly forgotten: “Recognising that adequate protection of the environment is essential to human well-being and the enjoyment of basic human rights, including the right to life itself.”

Living in East Belfast, I can personally attest to how both the Comber and Connswater Greenways have revitalised communities, providing aesthetic improvements and accessible recreation while promoting heritage. It’s not just there to look pretty, the environment plays an intrinsic role in our economy, health, well-being, democracy, peace-building and cementing, identity, the list goes on.

 

Stepping up to the challenge

An attempt to streamline the Executive in 2016 saw the newly created Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) now in control of a hugely varied portfolio, from farms to food via fishing and forests, with waste and sustainability thrown in too. During the huge operational adjustment that Brexit will bring, anything other than key functions are likely to be halted and it is wishful thinking to assume that the enforcement of new regulations and subsidies for agriculture and fishing will be smooth sailing. EU funding for the Environmental Farming Scheme, only opened in 2017, to encourage NI farmers to promote biodiversity, soil quality and landscape enhancement, was not included in a match guarantee by chancellor Philip Hammond.

We need this independent agency now more than ever – an all-Ireland body would be even better, recognising the island as a single bio-geographical unit – but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Our environment cannot be allowed to suffer the whims of revolving ministers and their personal allegiances: Arlene Foster vetoed the idea because the powerful Ulster Farmers’ Union at the time seemed to view accountability as anti-progress; Sammy Wilson didn’t even believe in climate change; Michelle McIlveen also thought she knew better than the experts and said we don’t need an Northern Ireland-specific act on greenhouse gas emissions, something we have struggled to control.

We love imported oil – in the face of the fuel poverty it brings. Apparently we want even more mega pig farms and their associated pollution. Let’s open ourselves up to the American market and lower welfare standards for both animals and labourers. We’ll let anyone dredge Lough Neagh; who cares about planning permission and precautionary principles?

These are, of course, alarming propositions. After years of secrecy surrounding party donations, who knows what incentives (or disincentives) were on offer behind the scenes at the expense of our environment?

At the very least, the environment deserves long-term, strategic planning with protection in mind – not quick economic gains. Northern Ireland’s position in the world is so uncertain at present and we need to work literally from the ground up in order to secure our future.