{"id":6994,"date":"2016-06-29T20:44:36","date_gmt":"2016-06-29T19:44:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=6994"},"modified":"2016-06-29T20:44:36","modified_gmt":"2016-06-29T19:44:36","slug":"eu-ever-done-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=6994","title":{"rendered":"What has the EU ever done the environment?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"europe-flag-1\"<\/a>What has the EU ever done the environment? I have been asking myself this over the last agonising few days.\u00a0 Will we miss the EU in environmental terms? \u00a0 The answer is yes but it has at least left a solid legacy that will be hard to undo.\u00a0 During this whole nasty campaign I have been wracking my brains to see how the EU affected me.\u00a0 There were three areas that came to mind, working rights, clean beaches and renewable energy.<\/p>\n

The UK’s beaches used to be in a terrible state.\u00a0 When I lived in Edinburgh over 20 years ago the cities sewage was dumped in the Forth.\u00a0 I know this because the then wife of a friend of mine was a microbiologist.\u00a0 Her job was to sample the water after the dumping.\u00a0 This whole business was not only polluting but highly energy intensive.\u00a0 Now thanks to the EU that no longer happens and the sewage plant even covers of its energy use by means of an anaerobic digester.\u00a0 When I have been to the seaside the beeches I have visited have been all the top blue category.\u00a0 Again thanks to the EU.\u00a0 The UK had to be dragged kicking and screaming to do this, but having done life is much more pleasant.<\/p>\n

The second area is renewable energy.\u00a0 The EU has set climate and renewable energy targets.\u00a0 These have not been high enough but have been better than nothing.\u00a0 The UK has to get 20% of all its energy from renewables by 2020.\u00a0 The government insisted we were on target to do this although many of us had our doubts.\u00a0 Nevertheless it was up to the UK how it met this target.\u00a0 One way was through the introduction of a feed in tariff which I have taken advantage of.\u00a0 Our renewable electricity production has soared to 25% last year.<\/p>\n

With brexit environmentalists are concerned about the future, I think with good reason, but some of this legacy is secure.\u00a0 Bye bye EU, I like many of my compatriots think we will miss you more than we realised.<\/p>\n

Neil<\/p>\n

PS I voted and campaigned for remain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What has the EU ever done the environment? I have been asking myself this over the last agonising few days.\u00a0 Will we miss the EU in environmental terms? \u00a0 The answer is yes but it has at least left a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climate-change","category-renewables","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat has the EU ever done the environment? - The oil lamp - shining God's light on peak oil<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=6994\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=6994\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=6994\",\"name\":\"What has the EU ever done the environment? 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