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.
Although the recent COP26 conference in Glasgow made progress on climate ambition, there is still a lot of work left to do to limit global warming to 1.5°C and prevent runaway climate change, according to Green MEP Bas Eickhout.
Kazakhstan aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, which means expanding the share of renewables to 83% and halting heat generation from coal after 2050, Serikkali Brekeshev told EURACTIV in an interview.
Deforestation in countries like Brazil is driven by demand for agricultural products in the Global North. That colonialist system has to change, argues Mitzi Jonelle Tan.
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.
Sustainable forest management is key to keeping Europe's forests healthy and must be supported by EU legislation in order to help meet the bloc's 2030 climate goals, according to Finnish MEP, Petri Sarvamaa.
Satellites can help track things like extreme weather, forest stocks and methane emissions, but more and cheaper "near real-time data" is needed for next generation applications to emerge, say Miguel Bello and Ricardo Conde.
The first step to bring forestry under the EU’s emissions trading scheme is to ensure that every tonne of carbon dioxide in the forest is counted so that a certification system for carbon removals can be put in place, Artur Runge-Metzger told EURACTIV.
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.
The forests in Europe that can be considered “old growth” – and therefore declared protected areas – depends on the definition, says Petri Sarvamaa. “And that’s where the political fight begins,” he told EURACTIV in an interview.
A lower carbon balance can be achieved by sequestering CO2 through plant growth, a notion that has a major influence on how Finland manages its forests and croplands, says Liisa Pietola. EURACTIV Germany spoke to the Finnish agronomist in an interview.
Sustainable forest management is vital to ensure that Europe meets its climate and energy goals. But over-regulating forest bioenergy would damage the sector’s economic performance and undermine its potential for climate change mitigation, Emma Berglund told EURACTIV in an interview.
Agroforestry is a "back to the future" concept, advocating a return to the origins of farming —trees and fields— rather than the modern concept of huge monocultures, says Tony Simons.
Policymakers are going to need to take advantage of the full range of possibilities if they are going to meet the food security challenge. But encouraging people to domesticate local plant varieties is both simple and cost-effective, argues agroforestry expert Patrick Worms.
The share of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) expenditure earmarked for forest protection should be increased but only if forest owners conform to biodiversity and other environmental policies, says Greek Socialist MEP Kriton Arsenis in an interview with EURACTIV.
EU needs to earmark part of the revenue from emissions trading to boost its policy on tackling deforestation, which is currently insufficient, Hungarian centre-right MEP Péter Olajos told EURACTIV in an interview.
