Despite the success of the Nature Directives, the EU's efforts to protect biodiversity are far from sufficient, EU Environment Commissioner Karmenu Vella told MEPs in the European Parliament's Environment Committee on 3 September.
The exchange was organized in preparation for the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 15, October 2020, China). “We talk a lot about climate, less about biodiversity. The role of the EU and the Commission will be crucial to ensure that these issues are above the call”, said Commission President Pascal Canfin (Renew Europe, France).
At a time when forests are burning in the Amazon, Siberia and Africa, when the IPBES report highlights the speed of the sixth mass extinction of species, the Commissioner considered that the commitments made by the President-elect of the future Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, were timely paving the way for more ambitious European action
Integrate biodiversity into policies. She promised a 2030 biodiversity strategy “to make the EU an example for the world” and stressed the urgency of presenting new transversal standards by integrating biodiversity into the various policies - trade, industry, agriculture, economy (see EUROPE 12298/17).
“To be credible, we must set an example at home. The time has come to work on integrated approaches”, Mr Vella said.
He argued that the most recent guidelines on the integration of ecosystem services (see EUROPE 12319/9) should be part of “stronger policy initiatives”. In his view, such a framework could complement the Nature Directives in order to have a broader coverage and limit biodiversity loss to ensure optimal societal benefits.
“I have already called on the last Environment Council for Member States to discuss key policy areas for the future of biodiversity. I am convinced that the same debate should be held in the European Parliament”, he said.
He also advocated “an industrial vision of the future” that could provide a concrete response to the business world's repeated calls for accounting standards to take natural capital into account. This would usefully complement sustainable finance, he said.
Support CAP reform. Mr Vella also called on Parliament to defend the level of environmental and climate ambition of the Commission's proposals for CAP reform 2021-2027.
The completion of the Natura 2000 network, both on land and at sea, and the setting of objectives and preservation measures will remain two priorities for the Commission services, he also ensured.
COP 15 on the post-2020 international framework should be a crucial moment for the Paris Agreement and biodiversity, with ambitious, measurable and firm targets for the parties, as well as a stronger review mechanism, he stressed.
Informing MEPs of the results of the last CITES meeting, the Commissioner welcomed the adoption by consensus of 12 EU proposals to list new species.
Contradictions. Agnès Evren (EPP, France) said that strengthening the protection of African elephants was a positive signal, but that more work should also be done to combat wildlife trafficking.
What is the strategic plan to convince countries like China to protect biodiversity as their demand for ivory and tigers increases, asked Alexandr Vondra (ECR, Czech Republic). Mr Vella replied that China's action in the field of the environment cannot be underestimated: a Chinese delegation was in Brussels on 5 and 6 September as part of the EU-China partnership on oceans, for knowledge-sharing through satellite data.
S&D MEPs lamented that the Commission has still not presented the EU's strategy for a non-toxic environment.
Referring to the 470,000 hectares of forest already ravaged in the Amazon, Marie Toussaint (French Greens/EFA) recalled that in Guyana, France “clears forests in the name of gold mining”.
Sylvia Limmer (Identity and Democracy, Germany) castigated the EU's climate policy, which promotes biofuels to allow air transport to be neutral by 2050 and “considers wind turbines and photovoltaics to be sustainable as they are established in forests”. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)