18/10/2024 (Agence Europe) – On Wednesday 16 October, Greenpeace Europe published a document entitled ‘The EU risks missing its biodiversity targets (again)’. Five days before the start of COP16 on biodiversity in Cali, Colombia, the NGO said that the European Union is far from being “the leading player in global biodiversity efforts and negotiations” that it imagines itself to be. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted at COP15 (see EUROPE 13087/3) in December 2022, aims to protect and restore 30% of terrestrial and marine areas by 2030. However, according to the environmental organisation, only eight of the 27 EU Member States have made commitments in terms of protected areas. Agriculture, fishing and urbanisation are exerting too much pressure, there are too few legally binding instruments and too many exemptions in the legislation, according to the NGO. (FS)