ation costs, jeopardize regulatory coherence and face complexities in regard to trade.

At the very least, transposition post-Brexit will generate some level of ambiguity. At the very worst, Brexit could strip away the entire infrastructure upon which regulatory provisions are founded. This is a complex challenge that the Government will need to overcome prior to fulfilling any ambition of leaving the environment in a better state than it was found.

Accountability

The lack of clarity regarding accountability for environmental standards post-Brexit has certainly raised alarm. Dubiously, the ‘continuance clause’ does not specify whether a mechanism for fining central Government or its agencies will be introduced; whilst the White Paper does provide that the power to correct the law would allow the Government to amend our domestic legislation to ‘replace the reference to the Commission with a UK body’, the likelihood seems a mere possibility. This is shown by the fact that, despite the House of Lords EU and Energy and Environment Sub-Committee’s report finding that evidence strongly suggested that ‘an effective and independent domestic enforcement mechanism will be necessary’, the Government have insisted that the current mechanisms of judicial review and parliamentary scrutiny are adequate.

Moreover, even if a replacement body were to be mirrored by the UK, it is unlikely to have the same proficiency as its EU equivalent. Case law emanating from the European Court of Justice (CJEU) currently plays a vital role in filling the gaps when EU legislation is imprecise or new issues arise. Therefore, the risk is that, without reference to the CJEU’s interpretations and judgments, UK courts may be able to interpret EU law in a different and less rigorous way, potentially weakening environmental protection entirely.

This may be the case, for example, in respect to UK air quality. During the early stages of EU membership, the UK was known as ‘the dirty man of Europe’, suffering from extreme pollution which resulted in issues such as acid rain and premature deaths. The impact of the EU on this area has been immense, shown by the fact that sulphur dioxide emissions decreased by 94% by 2011. The UK has still, however, persistently exceeded the EU maximum emission levels determined by the Ambient Air Quality Directive. As a result of this, proceedings were brought against the UK in the