“A global approach”. Spain’s Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, announced her intention to lead the discussions on biodiversity, soil and water, which launched the three days of informal ministerial meetings on the environment, climate and energy in Valladolid on Monday 10 July.
“On biodiversity objectives for current and future generations, we want to avoid having a fragmented vision of climate, soil, water, air and forests”, stressed Ms Ribera, who said that such a division led to “difficult situations”.
And with good reason: according to the Spanish minister, a loss of soil quality makes farming “more complicated”, which could lead to problems linked to both food and water security. The environmental programme presented by Ms Ribera to her European counterparts during the debates on the first morning cannot, therefore, be separated from a social approach.
“This is a particularly important council, the main goal of which is to look at how the different economic, sectoral and environmental approaches are taken into account in order to arrive at a solution that is coherent across all dimensions”, added Ms Ribera at the press conference held alongside the Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Virginijus Sinkevičius.
The latter welcomed the holistic approach, a complete break with the “work in silos” carried out “since the 1980s”, as the Spanish minister had pointed out.
A dynamic which also underpinned all the working sessions on this first day, with the afternoon devoted to plastic pollution in the oceans and the promotion of renewable energies compatible with the protection of biodiversity and respect for social aspirations.
“We wanted to devote today to the search for better integration of decisions, which all aspire to protect citizens and society, but which sometimes have difficulty in maintaining an integrated vision”, explained Teresa Ribera.
During her speech to the press, the Spanish minister also reiterated the importance of a nature restoration law, as the text, already rejected by the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment for lack of a majority (see EUROPE 13217/4), is due to be debated at the plenary session in Strasbourg on Tuesday 11 July (see EUROPE 13218/11). And at a time when Spain, like the rest of Europe, is experiencing record-breaking temperatures, Ms Ribera stressed that this text met the guiding objectives of the European Green Deal and would constitute “a key element for European prosperity”. These comments were corroborated by Virginijus Sinkevičius, who said that this “ambitious” proposal was “nevertheless necessary in order to restore our ecosystems and balance”. He added that “there will be no new text proposals if the current proposal is rejected”.
On 11 July, the EU environment and energy ministers will meet for a joint session on the annual United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), to be held in Dubai from 30 November to 12 December 2023, in the presence of the future conference president, Sultan Al-Jaber.
The following day, the ministers will meet to discuss the challenges of achieving an integrated and digitalised internal energy market, addressing interconnections, demand management and storage. (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)