European Union News - Environmnet

Despite reduction successes, it becomes clear that emissions need to be even further reduced to protect health and the environment. This is the main conclusion drawn from the European Environment Agency (EEA) report ‘Evaluation of progress under the EU National Emission Ceilings (NEC) Directive’ that considers whether the EU has successfully addressed environmental and health objectives set out when the Directive was adopted in 2001.

The European Commission published new guidelines explaining how best to ensure that activities related to inland navigation are compatible with EU environmental policy in general and nature legislation in particular. The guidelines are aimed at showing how to apply EU environmental legislation on inland navigation and nature protection.

The new European Commission's proposal on biofuels intends to minimise the climate impacts of biofuel production. It therefore proposes to limit global land conversion for biofuel production, and raise the climate benefits of biofuels used in the EU.

Researchers from Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland believe in a new pan-European study that changes in both temperature and precipitation will affect the range of most tree species. According to them, the change would be from 11% to over 28% under the mild scenario, and to more than 40% of the forest land under the extreme scenario.

The Committee of the Regions (CoR) has backed the Energy Roadmap 2050, European Commission's plans to reduce energy consumption and commit to shifting towards more sustainable energy resources. However, it urged that far more needs to be done to support local and regional authorities if these objectives are to be achieved.

MEPs at the Environment Committee voted in favour to make mandatory accounting for farm and forestry emissions. They also recommended a future obligation to account for emissions from wetlands. The draft legislation explicitly does not put any administrative burden on "private parties" such as farmers or forest managers.

Energy Committee (ITRE Committee) in the European Parliament approved that offshore oil and gas firms would have to submit major hazard reports and emergency response plans before getting a licence to drill. This draft law is designed to prevent accidents such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

The European Commission launched a new joint campaign together with businesses, environment groups and universities to promote climate solutions. The campaign seeks to put practical solutions at the centre of the climate change debate and demonstrate how climate action can increase welfare and bring economic benefits to European citizens.