The European Green Deal is dragging its feet into law as elections loom and farmers continue to protest violently across Africa.
The policy package, launched with much fanfare by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen five years ago, was supposed to make Europe climate neutral by 2050. But with elections in June, opinion polls suggest some countries may pivot to climate neutrality. Yes, the EU is watering down some of its key policies to reduce pollution and protect the environment.
The EU Council on Monday suspended a vote on the Nature Recovery Bill after eight member states withdrew their support. The next day, it approved a Commission proposal to cut some agricultural subsidies, which account for a third of the EU’s overall budget. At the same time, member states called on Brussels to weaken current legislation to tackle deforestation in countries Europe supplies with its crops.
“It’s difficult,” EU Environment Commissioner Virginius Sinkevičius said, citing elections and agricultural protests as reasons for resistance to the final Green Deal policy package. “But we believe we can cross the finish line together with all member states.”
Not all environmental setbacks are related to agriculture. Economy-wide legislation to tackle environmental abuse in supply chains was finally passed this month after member states watered down the bill to target some of the companies targeted by the proposal.
However, agriculture proved to be the sector most resistant to new rules.Agriculture at least produces production 11% of all global greenhouse gas emissions within the EUmany of which can damage the heart and lungs when inhaled, and are a major cause of wildlife destruction.
But while the continent’s emissions have remained largely stable for the past 15 years, efforts to limit damage to human health and the environment, or to make farmers and their customers pay for a share of their pollution, have been slow. facing fierce resistance. Tractor horns, burning hay bales and stinking piles of compost have regularly roiled the streets of European capitals in recent months as farmers battle against rules they say are “unacceptable”. In addition to environmental policies, Ukraine’s grain imports and proposed free trade agreements with South American countries have also come under the brunt of their anger.
Farmers, supported by public opinion and placated by politicians fearful of a rural shift to the right, have won concession after concession from European leaders. But they are also likely to pay a price for their success. Europe’s farms and fisheries are already suffering from a more intense climate and the decline of the soils and waterways that support life. Just one example of the strange effects this is already having on daily life, data released this month shows that Spain is currently suffering from drought and repeated heatwaves that have ruined harvests and pushed up prices. Thieves steal more olive oil from supermarkets than any other food item. “Liquid gold” is soaring.
Climate scientists say the situation on Earth is far from bleak. Most of the policies that make up the European Green Deal, which has withstood the coronavirus pandemic and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, have already been passed, but in a weakened form due to lobbying from industry and member states. There are many. The continent has some of the highest environmental standards in the world, allowing companies to make the transition without the huge subsidies for clean technology available in the United States and China.
But the biggest threat to its success is the potential collapse of the Restoration Act, leaving its fate up in the air. The proposal is one of the pillars of the Green Deal, and whether Belgium, which holds the rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU, can win over a majority of member states in the coming weeks to deliver what is supposed to be rubber. is unknown. Put a stamp on an already watered-down proposal.
Ireland’s climate and transport minister, Eamonn Ryan, told a cabinet meeting on Monday that withdrawing at this stage would be “disastrous” for nature and for public trust in European institutions. “Leaving this now means going into a European election claiming that the European system is not working, that it is not protecting nature and that it is not taking climate change seriously.”
