The provisional EU nature restoration bill has overcome opposition from agriculture lobbyists, lending a “ray of hope” to the bloc’s environmental future, following approval from the European Parliament’s environment committee (ENVI).
On Wednesday, ENVI voted in favour of the law by 53 votes against 28, with four abstentions, propelling it to the final stage of Parliamentary endorsement around Feb. 26-29, the bloc’s parliament said in a press release.
The agreed text would mean member states will have to restore by 2030 at least 30% of the habitat types established in the bill, prioritising protected sites under the existing Natura 2000 network.
States would also have to restore at least 60% of habitats in poor condition by 2040 and at least 90% by 2050, with some flexibility for very common and widespread habitats.
The latest development follows uncertainty around the bill’s future, but a less-than-positive atmosphere around co-legislator negotiations ended with agreement on a weakened nature deal late on Nov. 9.
According to the European Commission, the new law would bring significant economic benefits, as every €1 invested would result in at least €8 in benefits.
Jutta Paulus, a German MEP coordinating the Greens group’s position on the bill, said the text had cleared the “penultimate hurdle” in the fight against species extinction in Europe.
“Today’s vote is a ray of hope for Europe’s nature, especially after the painful failure of regulation on more sustainable use of pesticides,” Paulus said. Parliament rejected a proposal to limit EU use of pesticides last week.
Paulus said she expected a “solid majority” in the next vote as “some European People’s Party (EPP) MEPs no longer support their leader Manfred Weber’s campaign against the Green Deal, and have voted in favour of the outcome of the negotiations”.
KILL LIST
The nature restoration vote result came despite attempts by the centre-right EPP, the largest group in Parliament, to “shoot down” the law, with the bill on its “‘kill list’”, NGO Greenpeace EU said.
Spela Bandelj Ruiz, biodiversity expert at Greenpeace Central and Eastern Europe, said: “The EU’s nature restoration law is a glimpse of hope for severely degraded European nature.”
“The law is already stripped down to less than what scientists say nature needs to protect us from extreme weather and problems with food and water scarcity, and still EPP president Weber wants to shoot it dead.”
Read the details of the nature restoration law here.
By Thomas Cox – t.cox@carbon-pulse.com
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