Environmental Standards after Brexit

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 1:57 pm on 27 March 2019.

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Photo of Huw Irranca-Davies Huw Irranca-Davies Labour 1:57, 27 March 2019

I think we very much welcome the work the Welsh Government is doing to make sure that we do have robust protections in place and in fact we enhance those protections after Brexit. But we note, as we speak today, that there are young people up in the gallery looking down on our proceedings, and, for them, some of the defence in protections for our natural environment will be the ability of the citizen to take on Governments—Welsh Government, UK Government and others. At the moment, we have that ability, as we've seen through organisations such as Client Earth, challenging not only the UK Government, but also Governments in Hungary and Italy and elsewhere, under European legislation. So, can we at this point, Minister, say categorically that there will still be the ability for citizens and citizens' organisations to challenge Governments when they do not live up to their environmental responsibilities?