Introduction

In 2015 David Cameron announced that he would seek to renegotiate the UK’s existing terms of membership with the EU and put the outcome to a vote in a national referendum. The result of that vote is hugely significant because it will shape the UK’s relationship with the rest of Europe for decades to come. David Cameron has described it as “the most important decision that the British people will have to take at the ballot box in our lifetime”.

The stakes are particularly high in a policy area such as the environment, which has been very heavily affected by a wide array of EU policies covering agriculture, energy, fisheries, climate change and of course environmental protection.

This blog presents the results of an ESRC funded expert review of UK-EU relations in the environmental sector. It investigates how membership of the EU has affected the UK environment (policies, processes and quality) and what might change in the event of a vote to Remain or Leave.

Our expert review (14 international experts, 700 references and over 60.000 words) and its executive summary are now available.