The European Parliament voted on 6 October in favour of a strong EU commitment to global biodiversity, ensuring the coherence of EU trade and agriculture policies for development supported by increased investment to protect biodiversity and vulnerable ecosystems in developing countries and their people.
The own-initiative resolution on the role of development policy in responding to biodiversity loss in these partner countries, in the context of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, was adopted by 351 votes (31 against and 304 abstentions), based on the report prepared by Michèle Rivasi (Greens/EFA, France) and debated on Tuesday (see EUROPE 12805/22).
With the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15, 11-15 October, online) just days away, Parliament is calling on the EU to take its responsibility seriously in efforts to halt the loss of global biodiversity.
It calls for a crackdown on illegal wildlife trafficking, the extension of the scope of the EU Environmental Crime Directive, and the introduction of specific penalty provisions to ensure that activities such as illegal fishing, wildlife crime, and forestry crime are recognised as serious offences. To support these efforts, MEPs recommend that the EU push for the International Criminal Court to cover criminal acts that amount to ecocide.
MEPs also call for the right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment to be included in the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
The European Parliament’s recommendations also include a ban on the export of pesticides banned in the EU to developing countries. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)