Eco Chamber

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill is nearing the end of its controversial passage in the House of Lords, with NGO lobby groups trying to come up with a compromise in a last minute huddle. Will they succeed?

At the same time, a High Court challenge and a new report from the Environmental Audit Committee has added more fuel to the fire.

The team also discusses the significance of an Oxfordshire plastic waste mountain illegally dumped on a floodplain near the river Cherwell – a tributary of the river Thames.

Who’s responsible for its clean-up and what will happen next?

PLUS: Leaks during climate negotiations at COP30 in Belém suggest the UK is allegedly thwarting talks, UK-EU negotiations move a step closer towards closer alignment on chemicals and pesticides, and England’s ban on plastic wet wipes…

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The Planning and Infrastructure Bill is nearing the end of its controversial passage in the House of Lords, but a new last-minute amendment has caused fresh consternation among environmental experts.  

On this week’s ECO Chamber, deputy editor Tess Colley and podcast host James Agyepong-Parsons get to grips with the bill’s latest changes alongside special guest Ben Kite, policy chair at the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management and group strategy director at the consultancy Ecological Planning & Research. 

The team also discusses a recent ENDS Report interview conducted with Marian Spain – the chief executive of Natural England – and her optimistic take on the bill, which she says is “pretty good”.

PLUS: 

The sticking points at COP30 and the challenges for the UK’s own climate framework, news of a report written by members of a DEFRA committee which argues environmental policy ‘should be reshaped to focus on ecosystems not species’, and we bring you the regions set to benefit the most from a new £150m package to redevelop brownfield land. 

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Waste crime costs England's economy around £1 billion a year in damages, but a new inquiry has levelled accusations of “incompetency” at the Environment Agency in dealing with it. But the news has gone without comment from the regulator chief…

In this week’s episode, ECO Chamber host James Agyepong-Parsons and ENDS editor Jamie Carpenter discuss the story with Dr Anna Willetts – an environmental waste crime lawyer at Gunnercooke LLP and former president of the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management.

The team also discusses the final amendments to the controversial Planning and Infrastructure Bill being debated in the House of Lords, including new protections for wetlands and attempts to curb the scope of nascent Environmental Delivery Plans. 

PLUS: The government has published a carbon budget and growth delivery plan, major infrastructure projects may have a new permitting slip stream, and an ENDS exclusive reveals the English landfills suspended and closed since the mid-2010s.

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For years, a battle over nutrient neutrality has been raging in the courts. 

This came to a head in the Supreme Court this month. 

On this week’s podcast, ECO Chamber host James Agyepong-Parsons and deputy editor Tess Colley speak with lawyer Estelle Dehon KC from Cornerstone Barristers about the potential impacts of the ruling. 

The trio also discuss the latest amendments to the controversial Planning and Infrastructure Bill being debated in the House of Lords. .

PLUS: The Environment Agency is developing a priority list for certain PFAS chemicals in a bid to help set emission limits, DEFRA has accepted a raft of recommendations from the Office for Environmental Protection over its Environmental Improvement Plan, and a prominent air campaigner has vowed to take the government to court for its failure to adopt WHO air quality guidelines.

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In May, Reform UK took control of Lincolnshire County Council - a region set to become home to  the UK’s largest solar farm.. 

With local opposition sounding the alarm over the project, the party’s deputy leader Richard Tice has warned that the project would “devastate thousands of acres of productive farmland and countryside in Lincolnshire”.

This week, ECO Chamber host James Agyepong-Parsons and senior reporter Shosha Adie discuss the significance of Tillbridge Solar – set to straddle 1,670 hectares of mostly agricultural land.

The team also discusses the latest amendments of the government’s controversial Planning and Infrastructure Bill tabled in the House of Lords this week.

PLUS: International talks on a shipping carbon tax system flounder, England’s hydrogen and carbon capture cluster gains traction, and thousands of farmers see nature-recovery subsidies extended.

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The government wants to ‘build, baby, build’ 1.5 million homes before the turn of the decade but could flooding scupper its ambitions? Listen to the ECO Chamber to find out more… 

Flooding is the UK’s most frequent natural disaster, affecting people, properties, businesses and places in the short-, medium-, and long-term, destroying critical infrastructure.

This week, author and journalist Katerine Quarmby speaks with ECO Chamber host James Agyepong-Parsons about the increasing frequency of flood events across the UK and the difficult policy solutions that need to be found.

PLUS: Pro-growth amendments to the controversial Planning Bill have been put forward, Southern Water is to cut its water abstraction and the Crown Estate is being threatened by Greenpeace UK with legal action.

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This week, ENDS Report’s news editor Pippa Neill speaks with ECO Chamber host James Agyepong-Parsons from the Conservative Party’s conference in Manchester with the lowdown on its plans to scrap the Climate Change Act, streamline nature regulators and abolish “carbon taxes”.

In the studio ENDS senior reporter Shosha Adie also discusses the key takehomes of the Green Party’s Bournemouth conference, including its new ‘eco-populist’ leader Zack Polanski. 

The team also spotlights the departure of more than 100 Natural England staff, a reduction in nitrogen dioxide pollution levels in the capital, and the UK’s largest lawsuit on environmental pollution.

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The government says it wants to “streamline planning rules” to kickstart the building of three “new towns” and a new environment secretary has promised to make DEFRA a department of growth. So is nature getting squeezed out? 

ENDS Report’s deputy editor Tess Colley reveals her key takehomes from the Labour Party conference in Liverpool with Eco Chamber host James Agyepong-Parsons.

The team also spotlights an £80m unpaid tax bill rising from the notorious Walley’s Quarry landfill, PFAS’s 1,100°C kill zone and fears that national park protections are at risk of being watered down. 

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Every week, the ENDS team enters the ECO Chamber to discuss the UK’s biggest green news stories and bring you up to speed on the latest developments in environmental policy.

This week, ENDS Report’s deputy editor Tess Colley speaks with news editor Pippa Neil. 

After obtaining never-before-seen documents, ENDS Report can reveal that the chemical manufacturer, AGC Chemicals Europe Ltd, is making products containing the banned and carcinogenic forever chemical PFOA, and allowing it to be released into the air. 

The company says that production of the chemical is inadvertent and within regulations – but it is on-going – and Pippa has uncovered that AGC has known about the risk posed to its workers for almost 20 years.

PLUS:  a Reform UK-led council has dropped its climate change emergency declaration on climate skeptic grounds; Natural England has pulled the plug on its hen harrier conservation project and the EA has come out swinging against accusations that it is being pressured to waive through construction projects.

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Every week, the ENDS team enters the ECO Chamber to discuss the UK’s biggest green news stories and bring you up to speed on the latest developments in environmental policy.

This week, in a departure from business as usual, ECO Chamber host James Agyepong-Parsons sits down with the creators of Boy Wasted – a Smoke Trail production for ENDS Report and De Groene Amsterdammer, developed with the support of JournalismFund Europe. 

The investigation started with a photo: a concrete yard with piles of plastic, and lying on the ground was the body of a boy - grotesquely ripped apart.

Who was he? And what really happened to him?  

All three episodes of Boy Wasted can be streamed on the Eco Chamber podcast feed now. 

In this bonus episode, we find out how this story came about and what we as listeners can do next. 

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