On Monday 15 January, at the invitation of Alain Maron, the Ecolo Minister for Climate Transition and the Environment for the Brussels-Capital Region, the Environment Ministers of the EU Member States launched a discussion on ways of strengthening the EU’s adaptation and resilience to climate and extreme weather events, with a view of identifying areas in which more can be done to be better prepared.
The Brussels-Capital Region is responsible for environmental matters under an agreement between the Belgian federated entities.
Adaptation and resilience were discussed during the first working session of this two-day informal meeting (see EUROPE 13327/1). An opportunity for the Ministers to hear a presentation of the work in progress by the European Environment Agency on the first European climate risk assessment. This is a foretaste of the initial conclusions, said EEA Executive Director Leena Ylä-Mononen.
“We are facing a new climate reality in Europe that will increase the costs, losses and loss of human life if we do not already take measures to better prepare our societies for the new climate realities”. The forthcoming report, due in April, “will talk about the costs and ways of preparing ourselves in time for droughts, floods, forest fires, all these risks”, she added.
The EEA has already published a report calling for a reduction in water consumption in the EU (see EUROPE 12821/18).
The discussions focused in particular on water, bearing in mind that an initiative on water resilience could be presented in March by the European Commission (see EUROPE 13322/6).
At a press conference, Bulgarian Minister Julian Popov said that he had proposed a European water strategy “because water, climate and agriculture will be seriously affected”. And added: “I don’t think that EU Directives [on water: Editor’s note] are sufficient. We need a serious strategy with sound economic foundations, not just legal requirements”.
In his view, this strategy should focus on new technologies for irrigation, water conservation and advanced technologies such as vertical farming and the production of low-carbon proteins to reduce water use, at a time when the water cycle is changing. These are some of the ideas that have been put forward.
“The consequences of the climate crisis are becoming increasingly apparent, here in Europe too. The floods of recent weeks, the droughts and forest fires of last summer have clearly demonstrated this once again”, declared Christiane Rohleder, German Secretary of State at the Federal Ministry for the Environment and Nature Conservation, on her arrival.
“Poland, like the rest of Europe and the world, is facing increasing threats and dangers from climate change and the climate crisis”, according to the Polish Secretary of State for Climate and the Environment in the new Polish government, Urszula Sara Zielińska. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)