What would Brexit mean for UK environment?

After over 40 years of membership, the UK could vote to leave the EU as early as the summer of 2016.

If Prime Minister David Cameron wins a renegotiation of the UK’s relationship with the EU in February, as he hopes following last week’s European Council summit, then an ‘in or out’ poll in June or July is possible.

The question now faced by British environmental professionals is whether the UK, if it leaves the EU, would also leave the EU’s environmental regulations behind. And if it did so, what would that mean for environmental protection in the UK?