Policy Connect's sustainability policy team came together with Lord Deben, Chair of the Committee on Climate Change; Tom Heap, BBC broadcaster and presenter of Countryfile and Radio 4's 'Costing the Earth'; Peter Aldous MP, Member of the Environmental Audit Committee Jul 2015 - May 2017; Dr Alan Whitehead MP, Shadow Minister (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) (Energy and Climate Change); and Claudia Jaksch, Head of Sustainability at Policy Connect to launch the manifesto in Parliament.

"I’m [also] very impressed that the report has a lot of concrete stuff, quite literally in the case of housing, which I think is going to be one of the really interesting ones to see whether rhetoric about environmentalism, how that plays out in terms of building more houses and the imperative to do that and the desire to do that cheaply, which may not be cheap in the long run.”- Tom Heap, BBC broadcaster and presenter of Countryfile and Radio 4's 'Costing the Earth'

To coincide with the Repeal Bill, Policy Connect issued a call to arms for green economic growth with its launch of cross-party manifesto for a sustainable Brexit.

We have called on Government and Parliament to embrace key principles to achieve clean growth beyond Brexit and make the UK a global leader in the green economy. We argue that post-Brexit policy, at the heart of which lies the Repeal Bill, is a “chance for the UK to carry out an overhaul of its environmental policies; to uphold its international commitments, attract long-term investment, fully utilise available research and data and to embed long-term thinking and strategy whilst being transparent and accountable to these objectives”. 

The manifesto is the culmination of a series of meetings (called the Brexit Series); the set of Parliamentary events organised to examine the impacts Brexit will have on the sustainability, waste, circular economy, energy and built environment sectors. Helen Lacey, author and PhD fellow at the Grantham Institute, Imperial College London, introduced the manifesto saying "Whether each of us individually voted to remain or to leave the EU, we were ultimately left with a collective leave vote and the negotiations have now started. Thus we must plan to manage the risks and opportunities incumbent post-Brexit across the sustainability sector."

BBC broadcaster, Tom Heap, said "I was very struck reading through this report today. There’s a very elegant bit of understatement, it says, “We need to help inform the policy gap post-referendum on environment,” and I thought, “Yes, the gap is a little bit like the Grand Canyon is a crevice.” There really is an awful lot to fill in here when it comes to environment, food and agriculture, the whole line."

 “If we leave the European Union, [holds up ‘Principles for a Sustainable Brexit report’] these are things which we have to watch very carefully.”- The Rt Hon the Lord Deben, Chairman of the Committee on Climate Change

Here at Policy Connect, we are now looking forward to helping shape the direction the Repeal Bill takes, and will be championing evidence-based policy developments throughout.

Policy Connect Chair, Barry Sheerman MP, expressed his support for the launch saying, “The Prime Minister has asked for cross-party working on Brexit and the economy.   Clean growth should be at the heart of the Repeal Bill and I call on the government to embrace this report to deliver a green economy and improve people’s lives.”