Environment Secretary Therese Coffey who has admitted the Government has missed deadline to set new environmental targets
(Picture: PA Wire)Londoners’ lives are being put at risk by the Government’s bungled post-Brexit targets to tackle toxic air, a watchdog warned on Tuesday.
Dame Glenys Stacey, chair of the Office for Environmental Protection, criticised the Government for failing to meet a deadline on Monday to set a series of new targets under the Environment Act 2021 which aims to set standards after Britain quit the European Union and abandoned its system of eco-protections.
She also warned that some of the targets were too weak, including on air pollution, with the capital most affected by this toxic air.
“The Government is proposing an air quality target to be met by 2040, we are suggesting that could be brought forward to 2030,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“Bringing that forward would save lives.
“We estimate, 28,000 to 36,000 deaths a year are attributed to air pollution exposure.
“These targets are not just words, they are desperately needed for our environment and for our human health and well-being.”
Before Brexit, most environmental policy and laws in Britain were agreed at EU level, with the European Commission overseeing their implementation, including taking legal action against the UK for failing to meet air quality standards.
But after the UK quit the European bloc, the Government stressed that the Environment Act was the first time it could take a “holistic, evidence led approach to target setting which takes into account our domestic context, rather than acting in a reactive and piecemeal fashion to meet a patchwork of EU and international obligations”.
But ministers have failed at one of the early hurdles, setting a string of long-term targets by October 31.
Dame Stacey stressed that there was a need to make progress on them “at pace” and to beef up some of them.
“We need action urgently to protect, restore and enhance the environment....given the pressing issues, the state of our rivers, the state of our marine environment, the quality of the air we breathe and the alarming decline in birds and other species,” she added.
A consultation document in May 2022 proposed two targets to tackle tiny particulate pollution, PM2.5, which scientists say is particularly harmful.
They are:
- An annual Mean Concentration Target of 10 micrograms per cubic metre (µg m-3) to be met across England by 2040.
- Population Exposure Reduction Target – a 35 per cent reduction in population exposure by 2040 (compared to a base year of 2018).
An accompanying map highlighted how the worst concentrations of PM2.5 were in London.
The document added: “Reducing PM2.5 to meet these ambitious targets will have a significant benefit on health.
“A reduction in population exposure in England of just 1 µgm-3 could prevent an estimated 50,000 cases of coronary heart disease, 16,500 strokes, 9,000 cases of asthma and 4,000 lung cancers over 18 years.
“These targets will also reduce health inequalities and contribute to levelling up objectives. Currently, areas of high deprivation tend to have greater exposure to PM2.5.”
The Office for Environmental Protection was also set up under the Environment Act.
In an exchange of letters with Dame Stacey over the failure to publish the new targets, new Environment Secretary Therese Coffey stressed that the Government had received more than 180,000 responses to its consultation.
“In light of the volume of material and the significant public response we will not be able to publish targets by 31 October as required by the Act.
“However, I would like to reassure you that we will continue to work at pace in order to lay draft statutory instruments as soon as practicable.”
She added: “We remain committed to our future target to halt the decline in species by 2030 as included on the face of the Environment Act, and to bring forward the wider suite of targets specified under the Act.”
