LONDON (Reuters) – British lawmakers say the government is doing a worse job of reducing air pollution, preventing flooding and protecting wildlife than it was four years ago, according to a report published today.
The Environmental Audit Committee’s report scored the government according to the progress it has made in 10 areas of the environment. Those included air pollution, emissions and climate change, forests, flooding and coastal protection, resource efficiency and water availability.
The parliamentary committee assigned a traffic-light score to each environmental area. Red shows a deterioration in the area since 2010; amber shows “unsatisfactory progress” and green shows “satisfactory progress”.
The areas of air pollution, biodiversity and flooding were of particular concern and were classified as red risks. The remaining seven were amber.
“In none of the 10 environmental areas we have examined is satisfactory progress being made despite the necessary urgency,” the report said.Britain has been failing to meet European Union limits on nitrogen dioxide, which is produced by diesel engines and is harmful to respiratory systems.
In July, the European Union’s top court heard that London and two other densely populated areas in Britain will not meet the EU limits until after 2030, 20 years after the original deadline.
The quality of Britain’s air remains a “major environmental gap”, according to the report.
In December last year, 2.4 million properties in Britain were at risk of flooding from rivers or the sea and 3 million were at risk from surface water, the report said. Winter storms in 2013-14 resulted in widespread flooding and hundreds of millions of pounds of damage and the government’s response was seen as slow to the crisis.
On biodiversity, three out of four types of bird populations are deteriorating in Britain, and invasive species are on the rise, the committee said.
Further work is needed to develop plans for species on national and EU lists of concern and legislation on invasive species needs to be tightened.
