Gaining ground

EU VOTES FOR LANDMARK LAW TO RESTORE NATURE

Despite EU lawmakers voting earlier this week to weaken a law to cut pollution from farms, on Wednesday 12th July 2023, the European Parliament narrowly voted to pass a fiercely contested law to restore degraded natural ecosystems, reclaiming the environmental measures that others had campaigned to kill off.

With the aim of reversing the decline of Europe's natural habitats - 81% of which are classed as being in poor health, the new law is the first major piece of EU legislation to protect biodiversity in 30 years and will require European Union countries to introduce measures restoring nature on at least 20% of their degraded land and seas by 2030.

After months of protracted protests and divisions in the The European Parliament, their Environment Committee Chair Pascal Canfin tweeted on Thursday that negotiations between EU institutions on the highly contentious new rules to restore nature will start on 19th July 2023.