Adjusting to climate change and the EU’s transition to a circular economy, particularly from the viewpoint of protecting seas and oceans, will be the two topics submitted for consideration by the EU’s environment ministers at their Environment Council meeting in Valletta on Tuesday 25 and Wednesday 26 April.
Convinced that these are the two most pressing environmental issues, the Maltese Sustainable Development, Environment and Climate Change Minister, Jose Herréra, has used this selection to underscore the Maltese Presidency’s determination to focus on initiatives capable of promoting economic competitiveness that does not guzzle resources and is competitive in the wider sense of the sustainable development programme for 2030 (see EUROPE 11710, 11698). This will help facilitate the EU’s resilience in regard to to climate change while preserving the ecosystem and blue economy potential of seas and oceans.
Climate Action and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete and Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Commissioner Karmenu Vella will participate in the talks.
During the first sitting, on adjusting to climate change, the ministers will be invited to discuss the subject in the framework of the Paris Climate Agreement which foresees an improvement in adaptation capacity, greater resilience and a reduction in vulnerability to climate change for parties to the Agreement in order to contribute to a low-carbon economy, compatible with the objective of keeping the average increase in world temperatures well below 2 degrees Celsius, or even 1.5 degrees by 2100. The Maltese Presidency wants ministers to keep in mind the opportunities provided by climate action and the European Commission’s upcoming assessment of how the EU is adjusting to climate change, along with any amendments to national adaptation plans if the strategy is revised.
In the second sitting, the debate will cover the intrinsic links and interaction between climate and environmental policy with regard to the marine environment that needs to be seen not just as a vulnerable ecosystem in terms of pollution and pressures from increased use, but also in terms of the services it provides, such as a source of income providing some US$28 billion a year to the global economy.
The third sitting will be devoted to marine waste in terms of the circular economy. The ministers will discuss how the EU could tackle the multiplicity of plastic and microplastic waste polluting the seas and oceans. The debate will be set against the backdrop of the EU’s future strategy for plastics that is currently being prepared and which the European Commission is expected to publish at some point this year (rather than in December 2016 as originally scheduled) (see EUROPE 11609). The ministers will be asked to answer the following questions: Should this strategy cover the full plastics chain, from production to disposal, to be effective? How can action taken to tackle this issue provide new economic opportunities? (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)