The UK Government has stressed the opportunity to be bolder with their environmental ambitions since leaving the European Union, to make policies and laws more tailored to the UK context and be a world leader in environment and sustainability policy. At the same time policy goals to reduce legislative burdens and adopt more flexible approaches are becoming more prominent, with potential environmental consequences.

This is particularly pertinent when it comes to new trade agreements which are being negotiated by the UK Government and which may have environmental consequences both here and abroad. Free Trade Agreements with, for example, large agricultural exporting nations that have lower environmental standards are likely to impact domestic producers

IEEP UK’s work has examined the impact of global trade on UK environmental policy as well as investigated the wider impacts on the global environment.