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One campaigner called the law’s passage a “ray of hope for Europe’s nature, future generations, and the livelihoods of rural communities.”
Environmental groups celebrated a "historic" victory on Monday as the European Union adopted a law that seeks to restore at least 20% of land and sea habitats by 2030 and 90% to 100% by 2050, following a narrow vote by the European Council that swung on the vote of an Austrian minister who defied conservatives in her own government.
The new law, aimed at reversing catastrophic biodiversity loss, includes a sweeping array of protections for European ecosystems, from forests to wetlands to coral reefs. It also aims to restore organic soils in agricultural ecosystems, with special provisions for grassland pollinators and farmland birds. It was described as the "first ever" E.U. law aimed at nature recovery.
"After years of intense campaigning and many ups and downs, we are jubilant that this law is now reality—this day will go down in history as a turning point for nature and society," World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) EU, one of several organizations that campaigned for the law under a #RestoreNature banner, wrote on social media.
🚨 BREAKING: We have the EU Nature Restoration Law!
Member States have just adopted the game-changing law for Europe's degraded ecosystems
It's a huge win for the EU's nature, citizens & the economy and the people behind the #RestoreNature campaign!
Thank you all 💚 pic.twitter.com/MmZPOQXzWW
— WWF EU (@WWFEU) June 17, 2024
The law's adoption came after what WWF EU called "one of the most tumultuous journeys in the history of E.U. legislation," a two-year-long saga that was dramatic up until its final moments.
The law's final hurdle was cleared by the European Council on Monday when 20 out of the 27 E.U. environment ministers, collectively representing 66% of the bloc's population—just enough to meet the 65% required by qualified majority rules—voted in favor.
The threshold was met when Leonore Gewessler, Austria's environment minister, moved in favor of the law despite opposition from the leaders of her own coalition government. Gewessler is a member of the Austria's Green party, a junior coalition partner to the conservatives, who oppose the new E.U. law.
The law was nearly adopted by the Council in March, but was derailed when Hungary withdrew support.
On Monday, Hungary, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and Sweden voted against the law; Belgium abstained. It will enter into force in all member states, each of which will now be required to develop national nature restoration plans.
I want to be like @lgewessler - the most brave Envi Minister ever! Despite facing opposition in her own country - #Austria , she decided to support #NatureRestorationLaw! 👏 We will see if it is enough, but nevertheless this act of courage moved me 💚 pic.twitter.com/Q6IRYFQU8J
— Agata Szafraniuk (@AgataSzafraniuk) June 17, 2024
The E.U. parliament had passed the law in February, following trilogue negotiations last year, after which Council passage is normally a formality. But this law was a political lightning rod that threatened normal institutional processes.
"The failure to adopt the law would not only threaten Europe's highly degraded nature but also send a negative signal about established political processes within European institutions," Špela Bandelj Ruiz, a Greenpeace campaigner, told Common Dreams.
Agribusiness groups had waged a sustained campaign against the law while it was being considered by parliament, and it was one of the targets of the many farmer protests in Europe this year. There was an "unprecedented and absurd disinformation campaign," WWF EU said.
The adoption of the law, which was part of the European Green Deal, a set of environmental laws and regulations put in place by the E.U. over the last five years, comes just before a new EU parliament swears in next month, following elections last week. The new parliament will have fewer green party representatives and more conservatives than before, as well as more members from the far-right.
The nature restoration law will be instrumental in helping the E.U. to meet its commitment under the Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework signed at the 2022 U.N. Biodiversity Conference (COP15), nonprofit groups and E.U. officials said.
"The European delegation will be able to go to the next COP with its head held high," Alain Maron, minister for Climate Transition, Environment, Energy, and Participatory Democracy of the Government of the Brussels-Capital Region, said in an E.U. statement.
COP16 will be held in October in Colombia. Greenpeace said that failure to adopt the new law would have been an "embarrassment" to the E.U.
The law comes following dire reports about the state of nature in the E.U., where more than 80% of habitats are in poor condition. "Biodiversity in the E.U. continues to decline and faces deteriorating trends from changes in land and sea use, overexploitation and unsustainable management practices, as well as water regime modification, pollution, invasive alien species, and climate change," according to a 2020 report by the European Environment Agency.
Bandelj of Greenpeace told Common Dreams that some of the language on agricultural ecosystems in the law had been watered down during negotiations; for example, some of the targets are effort-based rather than results-based, with lawmakers writing "which shall aim to" rather than using more binding language. Bandelj also expressed concern that an "emergency brake" loophole could be applied, suspending implementation of the law in the event of food security concerns.
Still, Bandelj called the law a "ray of hope for Europe's nature, future generations, and the livelihoods of rural communities."
Warning of the heightened threat of nuclear war in a "world rife with geopolitical tensions and mistrust," United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday called upon nuclear nations to join the scores of countries that have adopted a landmark treaty banning atomic weapons.
"The once-unthinkable prospect of nuclear conflict is now back within the realm of possibility."
Addressing the first meeting of state parties to the landmark United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in Vienna, Guterres called the world's thermonuclear arsenals "a deadly reminder of countries' inability to solve problems through dialogue and collaboration."
"These weapons offer false promises of security and deterrence--while guaranteeing only destruction, death, and endless brinksmanship," Guterres said in his video message.
"Let's eliminate these weapons," he added, "before they eliminate us."
\u201cIn a video message to the #TPNW1MSP, @UN Secretary-General @antonioguterres said this inclusive participation reflects a central truth: disarmament is everybody\u2019s business, because life itself is everybody\u2019s business. \ud83d\udc47(2/3)\u201d— ODA (@ODA) 1655813072
Guterres lamented that the "terrifying lessons" of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan--the only nuclear war ever waged--are fading from memory. With nine nations now armed with over 13,000 nuclear weapons, the U.N. chief warned that "the once-unthinkable prospect of nuclear conflict is now back within the realm of possibility."
The TPNW was adopted in 2017 and took effect in January 2021 after Honduras became the 50th nation to ratify the accord. To date, 86 countries have signed and 65 have ratified the TPNW. None of the nine nuclear countries--China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States--have signed the agreement.
"This is a recipe for annihilation," Guterres stressed. "We cannot allow the nuclear weapons wielded by a handful of states to jeopardize all life on our planet. We must stop knocking at doomsday's door."
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Guterres' remarks come amid heightened nuclear tensions during Russia's invasion and Western powers' arming of Ukraine, and as the world's nuclear stockpile expands for the first time since the last decade of the Cold War a generation ago.
Amid the looming threat of nuclear escalation in Ukraine, a group of U.S. congressional Democrats on Friday urged the Biden administration to send delegates to a key upcoming nuclear disarmament summit in Austria.
In a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), and Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.)--the four co-chairs of the Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group--urged the State Department to send senior officials to participate in the 2022 Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons Conference, which is set to begin in Vienna next week.
The lawmakers note that the conference will take place in the shadow of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, "which has heightened concerns about the use of nuclear weapons in conflict."
"Active U.S. participation in the conference will provide an important platform to discuss the current unsettling state of nuclear affairs in the world and demonstrate U.S. leadership in managing the nuclear threat," the authors argue.
They add that nuclear "saber-rattling" by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his government and Russia's "vast arsenal of tactical or 'battlefield' nuclear weapons" is a "frightening reminder that the conventional war in Ukraine could turn nuclear--whether intentionally, by miscalculation, or even by accident."
Nearly 70% of respondents to a March survey conducted for the American Psychological Association said they feared Russia's war in Ukraine will escalate to include use of nuclear weapons.
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Highlighting U.S. nuclear history, which includes waging the world's only nuclear war on Japan and exposing people from Nevada to the Marshall Islands with deadly fallout from atomic weapons testing, the lawmakers assert that "the United States has a--sadly--unique perspective on the human consequences of the production, testing, and use of nuclear weapons."
"We would bring a needed and voice and invaluable insight to the conference," the letter contents, adding that U.S. participation "would show our commitment to playing a leadership role in ensuring that nuclear weapons are never used in warfare again."
The letter dismisses the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, a historic 2021 agreement signed by scores of nations--but none of the nine nuclear powers--as unrealistic given the world's current atomic landscape.
Instead, the lawmakers affirm former President Barack Obama's nebulous commitment to seek "the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons."