We have invested a lot of energy in participating in the creation of European Green Deal legislation in Latvia, which has created new business opportunities for many companies and our clients. Currently, one of the current issues of the Green Deal is the European nature restoration legislation, which is related to the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. Its aim is to set binding targets to restore specific natural areas by 2030.
Last February, the European Union (EU) proposed a law that would restore 20% of the EU’s land and sea areas to address public concerns about ecosystem degradation. However, last week, centre-right politicians, the bloc’s largest party, the European People’s Party (EPP), opposed the ambitious goals of the regulation. Despite this, a compromise was reached. The law was adopted in the European Parliament despite mixed support – 329 MEPs voted in favour, while 275 voted against.
The European Parliament elections are just around the corner, and many candidates are taking a clearer stance on the so-called Green Deal, including legislation to restore nature. Some are becoming more skeptical and demanding more attention, and most importantly, more money for businesses to adapt, while others are demanding that the Green Deal and climate neutrality goals not be abandoned. The former emphasize that business is at risk in many places because they are unable to reduce their emissions so quickly. The latter emphasize that there is little time left to save the planet and that we must move faster with emissions reductions.
It is difficult to say whether the truth lies somewhere in the middle. It is unlikely that the green course will be derailed like a train, because too much political, ideological and other investments have already been made in it.
It is more likely that the European Union institutions will agree to invest even greater resources so that business can re-arm itself – both with new technologies and new products. A good example is hydrogen. There are huge resources available for this. The question is how many Latvian companies will decide to invest in order to maintain their competitiveness. Understanding political decisions has never been as important as today and tomorrow, including the green course in all its growing scope.
Since the beginning of the year, resistance to the Green Deal has been evident in many EU countries. It is easy to predict that resistance to nature restoration will be even more pronounced, as it involves returning large areas of nature to their natural development cycle – or what can also be called the “removal” of areas from economic use.
This will require significantly limiting the areas used for economic activities, which means that large areas will not only have to be left untouched, but also care must be taken to ensure that the size of such areas increases. Although the sometimes heard “claims” that as a result of such European policies Latvia will become a large ethnographic museum are an exaggeration, great attention should be paid to this new legislation on nature restoration. Every new legislation has consequences, and they must be recognized in a timely manner, therefore discussions are necessary about the balance between economic growth and the volume of nature restoration.
Next steps:
The agreement reached with the member states was adopted by 329 votes in favour, 275 against and 24 abstentions.
The decision now also needs to be adopted by the EU Council before it is published in the EU Official Journal and will enter into force 20 days later.
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