In an interview with Euractiv, French Secretary of State for Biodiversity Sarah El Haïry reflected on the EU's progress this year, following the COP28 summit in Dubai, the adoption of France's national biodiversity strategy as well as the EU's pesticides directive and nature restoration law.
Creating healthy and sustainable ecosystems in Europe is key to ensuring food security, as heatwaves worsen and Russia blocks grain exports out of Ukraine, the environment commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius told EURACTIV.
There is no such thing as a European forest, and those trying to introduce an EU-wide forest strategy that does not take account of regional differences “live in Fantasyland,” Finnish lawmaker Nils Torvalds told EURACTIV.
Voluntary schemes have not been enough to protect biodiversity in Europe's forests and more coordinated measures are needed to protect nature in the EU, according to Green lawmaker Ville Niinistö.
To be effective, forest conservation initiatives must be rooted in a local context – including the land ownership and tenure ecosystems in which they operate, says Keith Kline, from the prestigious Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the US.
To what degree are French waters genuinely protected? In an interview with EURACTIV's partner le Journal de l'Environnement, conducted after the fourth National Marine Protected Areas Congress (23-24 October), Élodie Martinie-Cousty of the France Nature Environnement (FNE) explained the situation.
The next European Commission will have to reopen the Emissions Trading Scheme directive if it is serious about reaching carbon neutrality by 2050, argues Bas Eickhout, warning the next Commission chief will need to find a broader majority in the European Parliament than his predecessor.
A United Nations initiative is making massive calculations in an attempt to put a price on nature services such as soils, forest or fresh water in a drive to convince policymakers to implement the 'polluter pays' principle to protect nature, said Pavan Sukhdev, who leads the initiative.
Setting a clear timetable for delivering a comprehensive legally binding climate treaty by mid-2010 is a must, the EU's Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas told EURACTIV in an interview.
The new Director General of DG Environment Mogens Peter Carl speaks about the importance of this year's Green Week, thus stressing the links between biodiversity and economic development. According to Mr Carl, "Europe is living beyond its means" and should learn "to produce more with less."
