Ireland is guiding a group of EU member states seeking to rescue a proposed law to restore at least 20% of the bloc’s land and sea areas by 2030, following a year of back and forth between co-legislators.
Irish Environment Minister Eamon Ryan signed a letter calling for the adoption of the Nature Restoration Law (NRL) along with 11 counterparts from Czechia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Slovenia, and Spain.
The letter addresses representatives of countries, including Hungary, Sweden, Belgium, Finland, Austria, and Poland, that have yet to announce their position ahead of the Environment Council meeting on June 17.
Opponents of the law, particularly members of the European Parliament from the centre-right European People’s Party, refused to support the law last year, claiming it would undermine the farming sector and food production.
European co-legislators eventually reached a provisional agreement last November, after a long day of closed-door negotiations. Then EU diplomats decided to withdraw the NRL from the ministers’ agenda in March, despite it having reached the very end of its legislative course.
“This bill has no peace,” a spokesperson for the Council of EU member states summarised the political deadlock said at the time.
The Irish-led letter calls on countries to end the deadlock, warning that the EU will otherwise have to tell the UN Biodiversity Conference in Colombia in October that it is dropping its promises to protect nature.
“Failure to agree would be carte blanche to destroy nature,” Ryan said.
The NRL would allow the EU to live up to its commitments on biodiversity protection, the letter said. “Our failure as EU leaders to act now would fundamentally undermine public faith in our political leadership at home and internationally.”
The letter echoes a bitter speech by EU Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius after the Council’s last-minute failure to green-light the bill in March, saying it would leave the EU “empty-handed” at the summit.
Chiara Martinelli, director of the Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe, said the European Green Deal “is an unprecedented set of legislations and drivers to boost climate action and energy transition, but the work is not done, it’s not finished”, during a briefing on the future of green policies on Tuesday.
Martinelli added that the EU needs “concrete signs that the legislative fight that we put in motion with the European Green Deal is continuing”.
The Nature Restoration Law saw a “very polarised and simplified debate” and “is still hanging, it’s unclear how this will move forward”, added CAN Europe’s head of climate, Sven Harmeling.
Over 140 civil society organisations also sent an open letter sounding the alarm over the recent rollback of environmental measures in the EU ahead of the European Parliament’s elections on June 6-9.
Coming after the elections, the Environment Council will also give ministers an opportunity to discuss the EU target for emission reductions by 2040.
By Emanuela Barbiroglio – emanuela@carbon-pulse.com
*** Click here to sign up to our twice-weekly biodiversity newsletter ***
