iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ruth Chambers @ruthchambers.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

🔍 😌 This is what it looks like to breathe a sigh of relief after giving oral evidence in Parliament! 💚This pm I joined @richardbenwell.bsky.social @wclnews.bsky.social & Livi Elsmore @asthmaandlung.org.uk to give evidence to @commonseac.parliament.uk on the govt's new Environmental Improvement Plan

Richard Benwell and Ruth Chambers standing together in the House of Commons, under a sign which says 'Hear, Hear!', which is often shouted by MPs to mean 'yes'!

1100

Ruth Chambers @ruthchambers.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

📉The Office for Environmental Protection has once again found government progress on meeting its environmental goals and commitments is largely off track. The lack of 'green' in its summary assessment is striking. www.theoep.org.uk/news/actions...

273

Ruth Chambers @ruthchambers.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

🙏 Thank you minister @emmahardymp.bsky.social & chief scientific adviser @evoswami.bsky.social for an engaging discussion on action on chemicals pollution. 💚 It's an area where environmental principles – prevent, rectify at source, precaution, polluter pays – must be at the heart of policy making.

Photo of participants at a roundtable discussion on chemicals pollution with Defra minister Emma Hardy.

031

Ruth Chambers @ruthchambers.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

📚 There's a lot of critical environmental decisions piling up on ministers' desks. 🚀 None more so than the environmental improvement plan, which has stalled. Defra Secretary Emma Reynolds must get the new plan out the door and drive its implementation at pace. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

0117

Ruth Chambers @ruthchambers.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

📆 Today marks one year since Defra launched a ‘rapid review’ of the Environmental Improvement Plan. 🪟 The Office for Environmental Protection has warned the window to get on track to meet environmental goals will soon slam shut. 👀 Safe to say there’s a lot riding on the new plan.

023

Ruth Chambers @ruthchambers.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

🙏 @justinmadders.bsky.social for reaffirming that environmental protections will be maintained when the govt uses its powers under the Retained EU Law Act. 📗 This welcome statement is in the govt's latest report to Parliament. ✉️ Read the minister's letter 👇 green-alliance.org.uk/wp-content/u...

Extract from the government's Assimilated Law Parliamentary Report: December 2024 to June 2025, confirming that environmental protections will be maintained when it exercises its powers to change laws which originated from the EU.

022

Ruth Chambers @ruthchambers.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

🌟 🌟 Delighted to give evidence alongside these two superstars* this morning in @senedd.wales on a new legal environmental framework for Cymru. *Alex Phillips from WWF Cymru and Annie Smith from ‪@rspbcymru.bsky.social‬ who co-chair the @waleslink.bsky.social biodiversity group.

182

Ruth Chambers @ruthchambers.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

A thundery afternoon at #Elmey nature reserve full of bees and butterflies feasting on teasel nectar, corn bunting (which seems to be doing well here), hares and a sprinting stoat. @bumblebeetrust.bsky.social is this a moss carder? 🐝 🔎

010

Ruth Chambers @ruthchambers.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

⚡ Big news for Northern Ireland’s environment as an expert review signals the need for major change ⚡ We welcome its calls for stronger environmental governance and enforcement, to better protect and restore the environment. www.daera-ni.gov.uk/sites/defaul...

000

Ruth Chambers @ruthchambers.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

🧢Firstly, the headcount cap the previous government had attached to its funding for the Office for Environmental Protection is being scrapped. 🙏This is excellent news and is something @green-alliance.org.uk has repeatedly called for. green-alliance.org.uk/publication/...

100

Ruth Chambers @ruthchambers.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

A beautiful start to the day 😎🐎🎡

Horses being ridden in the quiet streets of Westminster with Big Ben in the background.

020

Ruth Chambers @ruthchambers.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

🥅 🥅 🥅 Another day, another moving goalpost... 🏊 The law* requires all bathing waters in England and Wales to be classified as “sufficient” by 2015. This deadline has of course been missed in many cases. ❓ So what do you think Defra and the Welsh Government are proposing to do? *Regulation 5(1)(a)

101

Ruth Chambers @ruthchambers.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

⏰ We've pressed for this for a few years, including in our assessment of how environmental principles could better inform government policy making. green-alliance.org.uk/briefing/one...

100

Ruth Chambers @ruthchambers.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

🔥 Hot off the press! The government has updated its guide on law making to include environmental principles. 🖋️🌳 This matters as new laws must support not ignore environmental goals. 🙏 @lucympowell.bsky.social for her work on this. assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67af11...

1229

Ruth Chambers @ruthchambers.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

🍒 🧹 And finally, I came across a plant called Butcher's Broom. Its shiny red berries stood out a mile. It's said the name "Butcher's Broom" derives from the traditional use of its branches to protect grain and stored food from mice and also to scour butchers' blocks.

An evergreen shrub with bright red berries, known as butcher's broom.

000

Ruth Chambers @ruthchambers.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

❄️ The snowdrops are out. For every 1°C warmer the average Jan temperature is, snowdrops first flowering date advances by 3 days. ‘The Origin of the snowdrop’ (George Wilson) "And thus the snowdrop, like the bow That spans the cloudy sky, Becomes a symbol whence we know That brighter days are nigh”

A small white flower called a snowdrop, growing up from the ground.

100

Ruth Chambers @ruthchambers.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

🌷 🌳 🔍 This weekend I went looking for signs of Spring and wasn't disappointed. 🐈 The hazel catkins are out! These are the male flowers and, if you look closely, you can see a tiny female purple flower peeking out too. The word "catkin" comes from the Dutch word katteken, which means "little cat".

Hazel catkin, dangly yellow flowers which emerge in Spring.

191

Ruth Chambers @ruthchambers.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

🐲 Wales is the only UK nation without a statutory system to replace the EU’s mechanisms for environmental accountability. Welsh Government must pick up the pace and make sure the new governance body has the resources and powers to do its job. Pob lwc @huwirrancadaviesms.bsky.social

100

Ruth Chambers @ruthchambers.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

🔥 Hot off the press is our @green-alliance.org.uk assessment of how well the UK’s post-Brexit environmental governance is working. ⚖️ The verdict? A mixed picture. Headlines below. green-alliance.org.uk/publication/...

130

Ruth Chambers @ruthchambers.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

The aftermath of the Retained EU Law Act is still being felt, eating up vital civil service time. Here's a 75 page piece of legislation to change how former EU laws are referenced (they're now called assimilated law). Must have taken ages to produce this... www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2025/82...

An extract from a piece of legislation which changes how former EU laws are referenced in our statute book.

010

Ruth Chambers @ruthchambers.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

🔍The Office for Environmental Protection has assessed government progress on the environment in 2023-24. 📉 The verdict? It's largely off track. 🚀 This government can catch up if it acts now. www.theoep.org.uk/report/gover...

A table showing government progress on various environmental trends in 2023 to 2024.

24227

Ruth Chambers @ruthchambers.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

📜 Welcome clarification by @lucympowell.bsky.social that environmental principles will "shortly" feature in the government guide on how to write new laws. 🙏 @elliechowns.bsky.social for raising this important issue. ⏰ We hope "shortly" = January. questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-ques...

021

Ruth Chambers @ruthchambers.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

📉 Today the government published revised indicators of how well biodiversity is doing in England. The answer? Not very. 🔴 Overall, more indicators are deteriorating or showing no change than improving, over both the long and short term. This is worrying. www.gov.uk/government/s...

The figure shows that more biodiversity indicators are deteriorating or showing no change than improving, over both the long and short term.

1128

Ruth Chambers @ruthchambers.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

💡 Sometimes the words used to describe our natural wonders are almost as mesmerising as the plant or animal they are naming! 🔍 Here are four wonderful things I saw on the south west coast of Scotland this weekend, along with a little of their etymology and mythology.

Epiphytic ferns growing from the trunk of an oak tree.

Small stagshorn fungus, growing on some rotting wood.

Yellow brain fungus also known as yellow trembler.

A small green plant called spoonwort or scurvy grass.

111

Ruth Chambers @ruthchambers.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

🌍 The marshes of Rainham offer a haven for #nature on London's doorstep. ⚒️ It's also got a fascinating history. The area has been occupied by man since the Palaeolithic era, with evidence of Bronze and Iron Age habitation and Roman occupation nearby.

161

Ruth Chambers @ruthchambers.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

💚 In praise of the humble alder tree 🌳 👀 I'd never looked closely at an alder catkin before but its purple hues and green hearts caught my eye. They really are that shape - no photoshopping in sight! 📷 🌊 I knew that alders loved swampy conditions and riversides but not much else...

The catkin of an alder tree - it has a long purple body with green markings that look like small hearts.

110

Ruth Chambers @ruthchambers.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

💡 💡 💡 💡 💡 Five things we learned this week about the government’s approach to environment law. 1️⃣ 💪 Ministers are willing to act on calls to strengthen laws. The government will give Ofwat a nature and climate duty and embed nature-based solutions in primary legislation for only the fourth time.

110

Ruth Chambers @ruthchambers.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

💚 Those of us accustomed to battling governments on bills will know how welcome government amendments to improve them are 📢 Yesterday Defra minister Baroness Hayman of Ullock announced a batch of amendments to strengthen the Water (Special Measures) Bill, ahead of report stage in the House of Lords

121

Ruth Chambers @ruthchambers.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

📗 Important report out yesterday from Asthma and Lung UK. Includes an important call to tackle toxic air pollution that kills 43,000 people every year, by establishing strong clean air targets in line with the World Health Organization. www.asthmaandlung.org.uk/mission-lung...

052