Brexit and the Environment Bill: The Future of Environmental Accountability

Abstract

One of the key functions of environmental law is to amplify the voice of those seeking to hold the powerful to account for their environmental performance. Now that the UK has exited the EU’s legal and institutional architecture, we turn to domestic law to glimpse the future of environmental accountability. This paper reviews the measures in the Environment Bill. Accountability measures are only ever as effective as the energy of those making use of them. This paper argues that environmental civil society needs to act strategically and collectively to shape the institutional arrangements provided by the (hoped for) Environment Act 2021.