The Czech Minister of the Environment, Anna Hubáčková, assured the members of the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) on Monday 11 July, of her commitment to the environmental cause, particularly biodiversity, which will be “a major priority” during her six-month rotating presidency of the EU Environment Council.
“We will try to shape the future of our children. We want to be respectful of the environment and the world we live in”, she explained. And while “citizen’ expectations are mainly about climate change”, she stressed that the Czech Presidency will also work “for a cleaner, purer, healthier environment”.
The restoration of nature, in connection with climate change adaptation, and the Montreal COP15 on global biodiversity, which will take centre stage at the informal meeting of environment ministers in Prague on 13 and 14 July, are examples of this (see other news).
In this respect, she emphasised the Czech Presidency’s desire to link this issue to the solar strategy and the willingness of the ministers to cooperate this week in Prague on the protection of nature, soil and waterways.
“I can assure you that the environment is not an ideological issue. I have worked a lot in this area. I didn’t know that I would one day take on these functions. I was involved in developing measures after the floods in my country 20 years ago. We didn’t know then if it was a one-off or if it would happen again. But it happened again”, she said.
She reiterated that climate protection and environmental protection cannot be separated, but are ”intimately linked”.
The preparation of the EU Council positions for COP27 on climate (next November in Egypt) and COP15 on a global biodiversity framework (December in Canada) will both lead to EU ‘Environment’ Council Conclusions on 24 October.
Regarding the ‘Fit for 55' climate legislation package, the minister, responding to calls from MEPs to raise the level of ambition, stated that she could not predict the outcome of the negotiations. But she said she was pleased that interinstitutional negotiations on two texts of the package started the same day (see other news).
Ms Hubáčková indicated that the EU Council was ready to start negotiations on the regulation to minimise the EU’s contribution to global deforestation as soon as the Parliament had decided on its position.
The committee vote is scheduled for Tuesday 12 July on the report by Christophe Hansen (EPP, Luxembourg). A broad compromise was reached between the Socialists, Christian Democrats, Liberals, Greens/EFA and The Left.
Circular economy. The Czech Presidency expects to be able to conclude the interinstitutional negotiations on the proposed ‘Batteries and Battery Waste’ regulation of December 2020 (see EUROPE 12983/17), which it hopes will serve as a model for other products, due to its innovative life cycle approach.
In the field of Zero Pollution, the Czech Minister underlined that during her six months at the head of the EU ‘Environment’ Council, discussions will be held on : - the proposal for a strengthened directive on industrial emissions presented in April (see EUROPE 12926/2); - the proposed regulation tightening the rules for shipments of waste, in particular to developing countries (see EUROPE 12982/12); - the new regulation proposed last April to combat fluorinated gases and the one on ozone-depleting substances (see EUROPE 12926/3).
A discussion could also be launched on the revision of EU legislation on ambient air quality, “if presented in due time” (see EUROPE 12797/9), she said.
Considering that light pollution has never been given special attention so far, the Czech Presidency intends to organise a conference on the negative effects of light pollution on health, Ms Hubáčková announced.
Value of nature: IPBES publishes its assessment. On Monday, just before the Czech minister spoke to MEPs in the Parliament’s committee, IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) published its assessment on the values and valuation of nature, highlighting that short-term profits and economic growth are the focus of attention worldwide, while the multiple values of nature are rarely taken into account in political decisions.
In their summary for policy makers, the authors argue that decisions based on a limited set of market values of nature are fuelling the global biodiversity crisis; they point to the existence of more than 50 methods and approaches to make the diverse values of nature visible.
They present four value-based “levers” that can help create “the conditions for transformative change”, namely by: - recognising the diverse values of nature; - integrating different values into the decision-making process; - reforming policies and stimulating institutional change; - changing standards and targets at the corporate level to support sustainability-aligned values in all sectors. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)