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Environment Activists disappointed by May's lacklustre environmental plans

Environmentalists warned that more widespread change was needed to halt global climate change

THERESA MAY must go further than her “disappointing” new 25-year plan for the environment by beefing up legislation and banning fracking, campaigners and opposition parties said today.

Environmental groups welcomed some measures promised in the Prime Minister’s speech, such as extending the 5p carrier bag charge to smaller retailers in England and encouraging plastic-free supermarket aisles.

They warned, however, that quicker and more widespread change is needed to protect the environment and halt climate change.

Greenpeace UK executive director John Sauven said a “25-month emergency plan” is needed now rather an a 25-year one.

Ms May vowed that Brexit would not lead to a weakening of environmental standards, but Wildfowl and Wetland Trust’s Dr Richard Benwell and WWF chief executive Tanya Steele urged her to put the new measures into British law and back them with funding and a regulator.

The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) said the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is missing easy opportunities to help cut down on waste suggested by the Commons environment committee, such as a deposit return scheme on bottles and banning plastic straws.

MCS head of programmes Dr Chris Tuckett said that the group is “disappointed” by the government’s slow-moving plans.

“We welcome the overall aims of the plan outlining Defra’s priorities for the next 25 years,” he said. “However, most of the commitments given have, in truth, been announced previously.

“We had expected more ambition in the department’s intentions, especially in tackling pollution, and in ensuring that environment laws are strengthened post-Brexit.”

Friends of the Earth chief executive Craig Bennett said that Britain must end its “fossil fuel addiction” by ending its support for fracking and developing its renewable power potential.

And shadow environment secretary Sue Hayman said that the Tories have cut support for renewable energy, put Britain on course to miss climate targets, voted against key environmental protections and allowed air pollution to “escalate into a public health emergency.”

Labour called on the government to ban fracking, bring in a new Clean Air Act to bring down illegal pollution levels and back its environmental amendments to the EU Withdrawal Bill next week.

Green MP Caroline Lucas said the announcements were welcome but were not “commensurate with the scale of the crises we face”.

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