Faced with MEPs worried about the lack of progress in Geneva and Nairobi in the international negotiations on biodiversity, in preparation for a global agreement, the European Commissioner for the Environment, Virginijus Sinkevičius, sought to reassure, while remaining pragmatic, on Tuesday 5 July in Strasbourg, during a question session on what to do to raise the level of ambition.
The Commissioner assured that despite a lack of political impetus for two years, “the momentum is still there”, all the while calling for “realistic targets”, accompanied by adequate funding and a rigorous monitoring system for implementation.
It is true that the subject seems to be ‘heated’ with the multiple postponements of the fifteenth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15, under the Chinese Presidency), which was supposed to have been held in October 2020 and will finally have to wait until December 2022 in Montreal to conclude an “ambitious” global framework, which is what the MEPs are hoping for.
Already in 2019, they had called for a Paris-like climate agreement (see EUROPE 12364/7). Now that a proposal for an EU regulation to restore at least 20% of terrestrial and marine areas is on the table (see EUROPE 12977/17), how can we overcome the biodiversity crisis in other countries of the world without risking the outsourcing of European production? And can COP15 help solve the food crisis? - asked Alexander Bernhuber (EPP, Austria) at the start of the debate.
In the Commissioner’s view, the EU can lead by example. “We are losing biodiversity. It is a threat to our food security. Ecosystem restoration is essential in this regard. It will ensure food security in the long term and this is true for all the regions of the world”, he said.
Responding to Cesar Luena (S&D, Spain), who wants to increase to 30% the target for protecting land and oceans by 2030 (see EUROPE 12812/7), massive investments of $700 billion and the elimination of subsidies that harm nature, Mr Sinkevičius said that $100 billion of funding per year instead of the current $6 billion “is unrealistic”. And to insist on the importance of mobilising private funds.
In essence, there is still no broad agreement between countries and negotiation efforts will be required to agree on 2030 targets, he acknowledged.
“We know it will be complicated”, the Commissioner said, recalling that getting the Paris Agreement in 2021 took the failure of Copenhagen before (COP15 in 2009) and an ambitious dialogue. “We are not there yet for the COP15 on biodiversity”, he said.
Catherine Chabaud (Renew Europe, France) and her Croatian colleague from the same group, Walter Flego, stressed the importance of preserving the oceans and reaching an agreement on this issue next August in New York.
Delara Burkhardt (S&D, Germany), for her part, expressed concern about the impact of European companies on deforestation that consume large quantities of raw materials such as rubber. The Commissioner indicated that the EU regulation against imported deforestation could eventually be extended in scope.
Pernille Weiss (EPP, Denmark) asked what incentives the Commission provides for research and companies to be at the forefront of innovation.
The Commissioner says that the market is there to provide this. “I don’t think there is a need for additional incentives. The market has understood the path to decarbonisation. Those who are left behind are those who will not have invested. The demand will be created by the market and the solutions will come from the private sector”, he said.
He also recalled that the EU’s Horizon Europe programme funds transition-related activities.
To Aurelia Beigneux (ID, France) who denounced the “hypocrisy” of claiming to preserve biodiversity while signing free trade agreements, the Commissioner conceded that “much remains to be done to integrate the Green Deal into these agreements”. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)