News

On 21/04/2021, the European Commission adopted a delegated act on sustainable financing, the so-called taxonomy. It is a package of measures to help improve the flow of money towards sustainable activities in the EU, according to the Commission. The package will allow investors to reorientate investments towards more sustainable technologies and businesses, thus contributing to the goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050. The package consists of three parts - a delegated act on EU climate taxonomy, a proposal for a directive on corporate sustainability reporting, and six delegated amending acts on investment and insurance advice. The delegated act on taxonomy must now be formally adopted by the Commission (at the end of May 2021), until then it will be translated into all official EU languages. It will then be reviewed by the European Parliament and the Council (within a four-month, maximum six-month period). The proposal for a directive on corporate sustainability reporting will now be discussed at European Parliament and Council level. The remaining six acts on investment and insurance advice will now be reviewed by Parliament and the Council (within a three-month, maximum six-month period) and should apply from October 2022.
More information is available here.

On 21/04/2021, the European institutions reached a preliminary agreement on the objectives of the European climate legal framework, which are part of the European Green Deal. The legal framework for climate complements the goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050 by setting a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The Commission and the Council supported a reduction of 55%, Parliament was more ambitious, supported 60%. During the last trialogue, however, the institutions reached a preliminary agreement, eventually agreeing on 55% (compared to 1990).
More information is available here and here.

The EP's Agriculture and Rural Development (COMAGRI) and Environment (COMENVI) committees last week launched a debate on the first set of compromise amendments. The first round of the debate is focused on less politically problematic topics, such as consumption date labelling, unfair commercial practices, or food contact materials. Future discussions on livestock production, meat consumption, new breeding techniques, and linking the objectives of the European Green Deal to the CAP should pose the greatest problems. Environmental organizations are now pushing rapporteurs Herbert Dorfmann (EPP, IT, COMAGRI) and Anju Hazekamp (GUE / NGL, NL, COMENVI) to drop their current requirement to carry out impact assessments to ban the use of chemical pesticides. According to environmental organizations, the Farm to Fork strategy does not set legally binding targets, so the requirement for an impact assessment is not appropriate. Voting in the COMENVI and COMAGEI committees is scheduled for early June 2021.

Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius presented the Commission's current plans to tackle soil degradation. The Commission is currently preparing a new legal framework for ecosystem restoration aimed at meeting the objectives of the biodiversity strategy, which will include commitments to make significant progress in remediating contaminated soil sites and developing an ambitious green plan for cities. The objectives of the new plan should be legally binding. In the next two weeks, the Commission will also adopt a Zero Pollution Action Plan addressing soil pollution. At the end of 2021, the Commission plans to publish an Analysis of Soil Biodiversity in the EU, which should be its most comprehensive assessment to date.

On 22/04/2021, the Joint Research Centre (JRC) published a study on ‘Mapping and assessment of primary and old-growth forests in Europe', which shows that indigenous forests in Europe are declining. Some European regions even lack detailed mapping of native forests. Proper forest mapping will help protect them, which is important for nature conservation and climate change mitigation. The JRC therefore supported mapping the state of native forests in the EU and strengthening their protection, which would also be in line with the objectives of the EU Biodiversity Strategy.
More information is available here and here.