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The European Union has pre­pared a pack­age of new cli­mate and envi­ron­men­tal poli­cies and rules, which could be imple­mented in the con­text of the European Green Deal ini­tia­tive if the plans pass muster.

The pack­age of envi­ron­men­tally friendly reforms is sched­uled to be pre­sented to the public by the new pres­i­dent of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on December 11.

According to an early draft pro­posal of the new poli­cies, the first and most impor­tant objec­tive of the new strat­egy is to achieve “cli­mate neu­tral­ity” no later than 2050. This trans­lates to zero green­house gas emis­sions from the E.U. member states by that year, which mainly con­cerns gases emit­ted by burn­ing fossil fuels.

Climate neu­tral­ity means that all carbon emis­sions should be coun­ter­bal­anced by carbon seques­tra­tion, which is the process of remov­ing and stor­ing carbon diox­ide from the atmos­phere.

The cap-and-trade system that allows sell­ing and buying of indus­trial gas emis­sions within the Union member states (plus Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein) will also be extended to include the mar­itime sector.

In advance, Brussels will eval­u­ate the pos­si­bil­ity of adding the road trans­port emis­sions to the trad­ing system, an inten­tion dis­missed by envi­ron­men­tal­ists, many of whom say that the exten­sion of the mea­sure will allow car makers to reduce their effort and costs in pro­duc­ing more envi­ron­men­tally-friendly vehi­cles.

As far as the agri­cul­tural sector is con­cerned, the E.U. intends to adopt “a tool­box for alter­na­tives to pes­ti­cides” and improve the exist­ing rules of food data and label­ing to better inform con­sumers.

Jabier Ruiz, Senior Policy Officer, Agriculture and Food, from the World Wildlife Foundation’s European Policy Office, told Olive Oil Times that the E.U.‘s Green Deal could lead to more sus­tain­abil­ity in the food sector of Europe.

“In terms of agri­cul­ture, we look to the European Green Deal to help a tran­si­tion to sus­tain­able food sys­tems in the E.U., for exam­ple, by propos­ing a long-term strat­egy to guide the way,” Ruiz said.

He also pin­pointed the impor­tant role olive farm­ers could play in the new scheme through their feed­back in cru­cial parts of their job, and he acknowl­edged the need to reward their efforts and con­tri­bu­tions.

“Olive grow­ers can help by iden­ti­fy­ing the farm­ing prac­tices they can improve to pre­vent soil ero­sion and overuse of water; offer more refuges and har­vest safely for wildlife; reduce the use of agro­chem­i­cals, or store more carbon in soils,” he said. “Public poli­cies must be used to reward farm­ers that go the extra-mile.”

The pack­age also includes a new motto for the envi­ron­ment, called “a green oath: do no harm,” aiming to elim­i­nate “inco­her­ent leg­is­la­tion that reduces the effec­tive­ness in deliv­er­ing the Green Deal.”

However, not all the E.U. member states have accepted the new cli­mate strat­egy lying down.

Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic have opposed the plan by claim­ing that the 2050 zero-emis­sion objec­tive will irrepara­bly harm their economies due to their extended depen­dency on fossil fuels.

By con­trast, a group of 10 member states, includ­ing coun­tries such as France, Denmark, Sweden and Spain, have asked the European Commission for a “clear direc­tion” toward a net-zero emis­sions target.

A summit of E.U. member state lead­ers is set for December 12 and 13 in Brussels, where the new cli­mate and envi­ron­men­tal poli­cies will be dis­cussed. A unan­i­mous agree­ment is required from the lead­ers in order for the new poli­cies and rules to be for­mal­ized within the E.U.

• Euractiv


• Kathimerini