In his Autumn Statement last year George Osborne said that he was committed to ensuring that EU law such as the Habitats Directive didn’t place “ridiculous costs on British businesses.” A review was subsequently launched into the implementation of the Habitats and Wild Birds Directives with view to reducing these “costs.” The results have now been published and far from identifying “ridiculous costs” it concludes that the Directives are working well in the vast majority of cases.

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The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published its Environmental Outlook to 2050. The report looks forward to 2050 and assesses what demographic and economic trends might mean for the environment if the world does not adopt more ambitious green policies.

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Defra has announced the results of the Environment Theme of the Government’s Red Tape Challenge. The challenge was launched to review the effectiveness of 255 environmental regulations and the cost to business of compliance. Of 255 regulations reviewed, 132 will be improved, mainly through simplification or consolidation; 70 will be kept as they are; and 53 will be removed.

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For the second time in less than two years Poland has vetoed targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the EU. On Friday, Poland was the only EU Member State to reject the European Commission’s Roadmap for Moving to a Competitive Low Carbon Economy in 2050, which outlined a series of milestones for reducing emissions by 2020, 2030, 2040 and 2050.

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The World Resources Institute has published guidelines to help businesses takes of the risks and opportunities associated their impact and dependence on ecosystem services. The guidelines set out a five step methodology for developing an Ecosystem Services Review. We have provided a summary of the key points.

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The Blue Planet prizewinners have published a joint report setting out the economic, social and environmental challenges the world faces. The report concludes that “in the face of an absolutely unprecedented emergency, society has no choice but to take dramatic action to avert a collapse of civilization. Either we will change our ways and build an entirely new kind of global society, or they will be changed for us.”

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The Energy and Climate Change Select Committee has published a report that concludes the UK has the opportunity to become a leading exporter of wave and tidal power. The report calls for political leadership, a stable consistent policy framework and measures to attract private sector investment.

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