Weekly highlights

Weekly highlights

The Lexis®+ UK Environment team produce a weekly roundup of key current awareness and legal updates. The highlights also include analysis of

To view the latest version of this document and thousands of others like it, sign-in with LexisNexis or register for a free trial.

TAKE A FREE TRIAL

Latest Environment News

Defra publishes fourth round of climate adaptation reports from health, food, and agriculture sectors

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has published the fourth round of climate adaptation reports submitted by organisations within the food, agriculture, and health sectors in England. These reports, invited by Defra under the adaptation reporting power of the Climate Change Act 2008 (CCA 2008), detail the measures being taken to address current and future climate impacts.

EA publishes 2024 storm overflow spill data

The Environment Agency (EA) has published the 2024 water company Event Duration Monitoring annual return data, outlining the frequency and duration of spills from storm overflows in England. The data indicates a 2.9% reduction in sewage spills compared to 2023, but a 0.2% increase in the total duration of spills. The average number of spills per overflow was 31.8, down from 33.1 in 2023. Additionally, 39% of storm overflows spilled fewer than ten times, down from 40.5% in 2023, while 12.5% did not spill at all, down from 13.9% in 2023.

NESO to conduct Strategic Environmental Assessment for future network designs

The National Energy System Operator (NESO) has announced plans to conduct a Strategic Environmental Assessment as part of its strategic energy planning works for future network designs. Following the publication of the Pathway to 2030 and Beyond 2030 reports, which outline a Holistic Network Design for coordinating offshore electricity generation, NESO will undertake further work to develop an implementation plan for these designs. To support the Holistic Network Design, NESO will conduct a Strategic Environmental Assessment, which will be undertaken by consultants RPS, to ensure that environmental considerations are integrated into its final network design recommendations. NESO will also conduct a Habitats Regulations Assessment and a Marine Conservation Zone Assessment over the next twelve months.

Ofgem publishes two guidance documents on Renewables Obligation compliance

Ofgem has published two guidance documents on compliance with the Renewables Obligation (RO) scheme. The first document provides guidance for operators of generating stations that utilise solid biomass, biogas, or bioliquids on how to comply with the sustainability requirements under the RO scheme. The second document provides guidance for licensed electricity suppliers in Great Britain and Northern Ireland, outlining the necessary steps for compliance with the RO scheme.