Latest news with #Roswall
Agriland
31-07-2025
- General
- Agriland
Icos Co Op Chairs to Travel to Brussels Amid Nitrates Frustration
The Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS) has said that it is "deeply concerned and frustrated" by news this week that Ireland would potentially be required to demonstrate added compliance with the Habitats Directive, as part of its application for a nitrates derogation. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) revealed on Monday, July 7, that the European Commission has told Ireland it 'must demonstrate compliance' with the Habitats Directive when granting farmers a nitrates derogation. There are 600 sites in Ireland designated under the Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive. Sites range in size from 1ha up to 76,000ha. These sites are designated as either Special Conservation Areas (SAC) and or Special Protection Areas (SPA) and are generally referred to as Natura 2000 sites. Under the Habitats Directive any plan or project 'likely to have a significant effect on a designated site or species' must be subject to Appropriate Assessment of its implications for the site. The European Court of Justice has ruled that the 'grazing of cattle and or the application of fertilisers on the surface of land or below its surface' in the vicinity of Natura 2000 sites may be classified as a project. ICOS has outlined its concern in a letter sent today (Friday, July 11) to Jessika Roswall, EU Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy. Addressing Commissioner Roswall on behalf of Irish dairy cooperatives and their farmer members, ICOS president Edward Carr stated: 'This is a very significant and unexpected departure that adds a new and potentially onerous layer of compliance to the nitrates derogation that was never envisaged when the Nitrates Directive and Habitats Directive came into force in Ireland in the early 1990s. 'Farmers and their cooperatives have embraced their responsibilities in terms of adopting environmental best practice. "We have seen very positive outcomes with nitrate concentrations in Irish rivers declining significantly in 2024. "This new development related to the Habitats Directive is deeply frustrating given the ongoing national movement to improve water quality led by farmers, dairy co-ops, the meat and tillage sectors, Teagasc and LAWPRO [Local Authority Waters Programme]," he added. The Irish Government is currently preparing a response to the European Commission. However, ICOS maintains that before any process is agreed to with the commission, the implications for farm families and the food industry need to be outlined. ICOS has confirmed that a delegation of co-op chairpersons will travel to Brussels on July 15-16 to meet with Irish MEPs and the European Commission on the matter, including Commissioner Roswall's head of cabinet, Paulina Dejmek Hack. Edward Carr commented: 'We will strongly impress on the European Commission our deep concerns that this development will have for business certainty at farm and processing level and for generational renewal in the sector. 'We will use the opportunity to reinforce to the commission the benefits of Ireland's unique grass-based system and the strong momentum building in Ireland on water quality and the verifiable improvement in water quality, as well as other environmental metrics such as climate and ammonia. 'The dairy co-op sector has a strong track record of delivering pioneering initiatives on sustainability to support our members and family farms and a strong track record of collaboration and working together. "We will continue with these efforts to protect the environment and to ensure the future of Ireland's grass-based system of production that depends on a workable nitrates derogation,' Carr added.
Euractiv
07-07-2025
- Business
- Euractiv
Green groups uneasy as EU bets on market to drive nature restoration
The European Commission believes a market for nature credits will unlock private financing to fund ecosystem restoration and biodiversity protection, but critics are sounding the alarm over what they fear may become another greenwashing tool. Months after Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen floated the idea of a cash-for-nature scheme, the EU executive has developed the idea further with the publication of a nature credits roadmap. 'This not about turning nature into a commodity, but about recognising and rewarding actions that restore and sustain nature," environment commissioner Jessika Roswall told reporters on Monday. "Nature credits are emerging as a promising tool to change how we value nature,' she said. The Commission envisages a scheme to reward farmers and landowners for environmental actions and sustainable management that goes beyond legal obligations, thus reconciling the economics of farming and forestry with nature preservation. According to the roadmap, a nature credit is 'a unit that represents a nature-positive outcome, derived from a certified and independently verified action'. The fungible units would be generated in two steps. A given action, such as the restoration of drained wetland, must first pass a 'high-quality' standards test and be certified. The project must then be monitored, with the issuance of nature credits linked to demonstrable results. '[W]e face a €37 billion annual gap in biodiversity financing across the EU. To close it, we must unlock private finance to complement public support,' Roswall said. At a time when there is growing awareness that biodiversity loss leads to financial and economic risks – with 75% of European businesses dependent in some way on ecosystem services – the new market-based tool is presented as complementary to public funding. With the finance gap estimated globally at $200 billion a year until the end of the decade, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity calls for increased and diversified flows of money into nature restoration. Greenwashing risks To lay the groundwork for a future EU nature credits market, the Commission plans to launch an expert group tasked with developing initial criteria and methodologies over the coming year. In parallel, an EU-wide pilot project is slated to run from 2025 to 2027, after the Commission tested the concept in two national pilot projects in Estonia and France. 'To avoid greenwashing is key,' Roswall said, adding that it was 'crucial that we can trust nature'. But warnings have already emerged about a lack of demand for nature credits, even before the scheme gets off the ground. The Commission's efforts to avoid accusations of greenwashing – which have previously dogged the market for carbon credits used to outsource climate action – have not staved off criticism that it is promoting a false, possible even destructive, solution. 'It is absurd that discussions around nature finance are relying on a pilot that increases environmental destruction,' said Siim Kuresoo, a campaigner with the forest protection group Fern. Specifically, the NGO claims that one of the nature credits pilot projects, in Estonia, has led to 27 hectares of forest being clear-cut, some of it in ecologically sensitive areas. Roswall declined to answer when asked by Euractiv whether she was aware of or acknowledged this criticism. 'Nature credits are a cover for inaction, a greenwashing shortcut that allows corporations to keep destroying nature as long as they pay for it," said Clara Bourgin, a nature campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe. "This is not the time for market schemes that benefit only a few while putting nature at risk," Bourgin said. (rh, aw)
Euronews
05-06-2025
- Health
- Euronews
"The green transition and competitiveness are not contradictory," says EU Environment commissioner
Jessika Roswall is convinced that water cannot be taken for granted by Europeans. "We cannot continue like that because extreme weather events have become the new normal in one way," she said in an interview with Euronews as part of a presentation of the new European Water Resilience strategy. Europe is facing a problem of quantity: drought is a problem not only in the south of the continent but also in the north. On the flipside, there have also been severe floods in Valencia and southwest France. "The water scarcity that Europe is facing, the Europe's land, is 30%. So, we have both problems with too much water sometimes, too little water, but also polluted water, so we need to act." The goal for the Commissioner is to have clean and affordable water for everybody including industry and farmers. "We need to be smarter on using water. How can we be more efficient? And then it's also about innovation and how can we use the techniques." The quality of water is another major issue facing the Commission. The presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as 'forever chemicals,' have been accumulating across EU waters for decades, posing a serious risk to human health and the environment. The European Commission says it's preparing to support a major clean-up initiative set to begin in 2026. The Commission also says it's working towards an eventual ban on the use of PFAS when it comes to consumer products including pizza boxes, cosmetics, rain clothes or firefighting foams. But it becomes much more difficult for medical products like inhalers, surgical equipment or items where there is no suitable alternative. "We need to discuss both how industries that need it can use it safely, and how we can protect it from leaking into nature or otherwise harming people's health," Roswall said. "We are working on both, how to use it in a sustainable way if you may say but we need also at the same time work on how to clean up." The Commissioner firmly believes that the "green transition and competitiveness is not contradictory." She thinks the solution lies through dialogue, including industry, NGOs and member states. The PFAS actions are intended to complement ongoing efforts to review the EU's REACH framework, which oversees EU regulation of chemicals. The revised text could come by the end of the year, following several postponements. Roswall denies accusations from environmental and consumer groups that the Commission is prioritising the demands of industry over the environment. "When we see the chemical industry, which is an important industry for all other industries, that is true because other industries need the products and we need an industry here in Europe, that is important for all of us." Roswall said she believes it's possible to support the environment and also relieve the burden on farmers when it comes to regulations. "If we don't have nature, we don't have farming—and of course, the opposite is also true. So, I would say that we are working toward the same goal. When it comes to simplification, for me, it's really about reporting. For example, I know we're focusing on how we can make it easier for farmers to report less." When discussing the needs of tackling the collapse of biodiversity, Roswall says she is pushing for a dialogue between farmers and NGOs which she says is key in understanding each other's perspectives. She suggests nature credits - financial instruments that can be traded or used to offset biodiversity impacts - would boost private sector investment and biodiversity conservation. "I would still argue that this is something that we need to do and we know that we want to do it, but we need to be smarter when we do it," she said.
Euronews
28-05-2025
- Business
- Euronews
Circular Economy Act: what are the European Commission's tools to get the economics right?
'We have a lot of policy already, what we need is to get the economics right', European Commissioner for the Environment Jessika Roswall told Euronews. Roswall is the architect of the EU Commission's future Circular Economy Act, which is to succeed the Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP) adopted five years ago. The initiative should include updating existing rules to foster 'circular competitiveness' and boost the EU's recycling rate. In 2022, only 12% of products consumed came from recycling. The plan could include a revision of the WEEE (Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment) Directive, which governs the rules and targets for the collection and treatment of e-waste, from small batteries to photovoltaic panels. In almost 20 years, the WEEE Directive has led to a tenfold increase in the amount of e-waste recovered and properly treated in the EU, but not all member states have achieved the targets set. Quantities of WEEE are still not collected, improperly treated or illegally exported. The EU wants to increase the proportion of recovered materials in order to reduce the proportion of virgin materials imported for new electrical and electronic equipment. The Circular Economy Act should focus on the recovery of critical raw materials. This strategy is presented as a means of strengthening the EU's economic security against a backdrop of international trade tensions. 'The circularity numbers are too low. This geopolitical situation must be the time when we actually go circular', Commissoner Roswall told Euronews. In 2024, the EU adopted the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRM Act), which is intended to strengthen the EU's security of supply of a series of metals and other components essential to the green and digital transitions. The European Union has drawn up a regularly updated list of materials considered 'critical', such as rare-earth metals, copper or cobalt, and another of materials considered 'strategic', such as bismuth and magnesium metal. The EU's objective is to achieve a recycling rate of 25% of CRMs, compared with around 1% today. This requires investment in the necessary infrastructure as part of the Clean Industrial Deal presented last year. The circular economy should also apply to other sectors of the economy, such as construction, textiles and the automotive industry. The Act in preparation is set to provide for the revision of the Waste Framework Directive and promote the creation of a 'common market for waste'. Despite efforts at harmonisation, the existing fragmentation between national requirements, as in the case of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) systems, raises problems of competition and costs. An intra-EU waste market is wanted by Brussels, which conversely recently tightened the rules against the export of waste outside the EU. 'We need to change our mindset and see waste as an asset', Roswall added, specifying that she also considered water as waste. The EU recently strengthened its legislation on urban wastewater. It plans to maximise the reuse of water for irrigation in the continent's largest treatment stations. Alongside recycling, the EU is also encouraging the extension of product lifetimes. The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) entered into force in 2024, and is aimed at creating economic opportunities in remanufacturing, recycling or repair. The European Commission has put forward the concept of a 'right to repair', in the form of incentives to make repairing products easier and more attractive, in order to reduce waste. A directive aimed at 'Empowering consumers for the green transition' was also adopted to offer consumers better information on the products durability. According to a 2020 survey, 77% of Europeans said they would rather repair their goods, but had to buy new ones because of the lack of repair services.
Japan Today
12-05-2025
- Business
- Japan Today
EU mulls nature credits to help biodiversity
Environmental groups worry the idea could be brought low by the many scandals that have hit carbon credit markets By Adrien DE CALAN Could farmers get money for protecting birds or plants? That's the hope of the European Union, which is seeking to monetize biodiversity by creating a market for "nature credits". The European Commission last month launched a series of talks with financial, farming and green groups to ponder the idea, which has some environmentalists worried. "You can make good money by razing a forest to the ground, but not by planting a new one and letting it grow old," the EU's environment commissioner Jessika Roswall told a "Global Solutions" conference in Berlin this week, adding the bloc wanted to change that. The plan is still in its infancy and no concrete details have been put forward yet. But the idea is to replicate the financial success of carbon credits, which launched two decades ago to help finance efforts to tackle global warming and have developed into an almost trillion-dollar global market. Carbon credits allow a polluter to "offset" their emissions by paying for "avoided" emissions elsewhere. Nature credits on the other hand would see businesses brush up their green credentials by paying for initiatives that restore or protect nature -- something Roswall said cannot be financed by public coffers alone. At a U.N. biodiversity summit in 2022, world nations agreed to a target of protecting 30 percent of the planet's lands and oceans by 2030 and to provide $200 billion a year in finance. Under the EU plan, activities that protect or restore nature would be certified and the related certificate traded in a dedicated financial market. But things get more complicated in practice. "Putting a price tag on nature" is a "more complex" affair than pricing carbon emissions, said an EU official. How much CO2 is released into the atmosphere or sequestered by a specific activity is easily measurable, the official said. The same can not be said of biodiversity, which is by definition diverse, with many varieties of animal and plants making it tricky to measure and identify value. "Waking up to the song of birds, drinking water from a mountain spring, staring at the endless blue of the sea and of the ocean. How could you possibly put a price tag on any of this?" Roswall asked in Berlin. "We do put a price tag on nature, every second, every day, but only by taking resources away from their natural environment," she added. In Europe, several pilot projects have been launched to test the concept, including in Finland, France and Estonia, where an initiative is seeking to reward forest owners for sustainably managing their plots. The 27-nation EU is hoping these and other projects will provide farmers and foresters with an additional source of income. It is not alone. Similar schemes were discussed at the U.N. COP16 nature talks in Colombia last year, and more than a dozen countries, including the United States and Germany already have a nascent market or a project underway. Yet, striking a cautious note, pan-European farmers group Copa-Cogeca said it wanted to see a concrete proposal before commenting. Environmental groups on the other hand are worried about a possible repeat of the many scandals that have dogged carbon credit markets, from tax fraud to the certification of projects that did nothing for the environment. Nature credits could offer firms another opportunity for "greenwashing" -- pretending they are greener than they really are -- and authorities an excuse to cut back public funding for biodiversity, some warn. "Not even the commission knows what they want to do," Ioannis Agapakis, a lawyer with ClientEarth, an environmental group, said of the European Commission. Yet, it was "no coincidence" -- and "a concern" -- that the idea was being floated as the EU's executive body prepared to negotiate the future European budget, he added. © 2025 AFP
