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By Sharon Kimathi, Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital

Hello!

This week, European Union countries delayed a planned vote on the bloc’s policy to restore nature after too few governments signaled they would approve the flagship environmental law as farmers continue to protest against it.

Belgium, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency and chairs negotiations among EU member states, delayed the vote until Friday, a spokesperson for the Belgian presidency said.

The EU nature restoration law has faced a backlash from some governments and lawmakers concerned that it would impose burdensome rules on farmers, who have staged months of protests across Europe over an array of complaints including EU regulations.

Also on my radar today:

• UN agencies, 36 countries mull aid to Gaza through Cyprus
• Britain’s finance sector faces long haul to gender parity, report says
• Europe’s pro-nuclear leaders seek atomic energy revival

People take a picture of a cherry blossom tree at the Jardin des Plantes botanical garden on the first day of spring in Paris, France. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier

The vote among EU countries’ ambassadors was supposed to be a formality, to approve a deal on the nature law agreed between EU countries and lawmakers last year. It is intended to restore degraded natural ecosystems and reverse the decline of many of Europe’s natural habitats.

But months of farmers’ protests have increased pressure on governments over green measures, while national elections and domestic concerns have led some EU countries to reconsider their stance on the law.

Last week, the European Commission proposed an easing of a series of rules on leaving land fallow or rotating crops, offering concessions to farmers who have protested with tractor blockades across Europe over the past few months.

EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski had been due to present the reforms on a visit to his native Poland last week but said this was delayed due to a dispute over the timing of some changes.

Polish farmers blocked roads with tractors and flares on Wednesday in escalating protests against EU environmental regulations and cheap food imports from neighboring Ukraine which the bloc provisionally agreed to prolong.

With hundreds of protests planned, Reuters footage from Zakret, east of Warsaw, showed farmers blocking ways into the capital. Tractors lined roads mounted with Polish flags while red flares were set off.

Placards depicted a farmer swinging from a gallows next to wind farms and an EU-emblazoned executioner with the words: “Green Deal equals death of Polish agriculture“, referring to the bloc’s plan to tackle climate change.

“We demand the withdrawal of the ‘Green Deal’ as a whole, we demand the withdrawal of the ‘Fit for 55’ (EU climate plan), the limits on all emissions, all the bans and orders,” said protest organizer Lukasz Komorowski, speaking to fellow rallying farmers at the Zakret blockade.

The EU nature law had been expected to pass with support from a slim reinforced majority of the EU’s 27 member states, but EU officials said late changes to governments’ positions meant that was no longer the case.

Countries including Italy and Sweden have opposed the law, and Belgium and Austria are set to abstain, EU officials said. The Netherlands has decided to oppose the law, and EU officials said Hungary had indicated it was still considering its position.

Germany was set to support the law, EU officials said, even though the Free Democrats, a junior partner in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition government, indicated this week they could not back it.

The nature law is one of the EU’s biggest pieces of environmental legislation, requiring countries to introduce measures restoring nature on a fifth of their land and sea by 2030.

It aims to reverse the decline of Europe’s natural habitats – 81% of which are classed as being in poor health – and includes specific targets, for example to restore peatlands so they can absorb CO2 emissions.

A scrap dealer piles up discarded TV sets before dismantling them at a scrap yard in Ahmedabad, India. REUTERS/Amit Dave

Responding to calls for abandoning the phasing out of oil and gas at CERAWeek, Roy Bedlow, founder and CEO at UK-based investment firm Low Carbon, said:

“This week we heard from oil and gas executives at CERAWeek in Houston that the global push to overhaul our energy system to slow climate change is ‘visibly failing’ and that it disregards the impacts on consumers who are dependent on cheap, reliable fuel.

“This statement ignores the true costs of continuing our reliance on fossil fuels including subsidies associated with hydrocarbons and the negative health and environmental impacts on the people they say are reliant on cheap energy. 

“Furthermore, as we have seen with the war in Ukraine, our over-reliance on fossil fuels puts us at the mercy of hostile actors and is the reason there was a significant increase in energy prices in 2022. Oil and gas assets are anything but cheap or reliable.

“The large-scale deployment of renewables on the other hand, represents the only viable route to achieving energy security and independence.  

“Renewable energy delivers economic security by helping bring down energy bills for consumers and driving new job creation. This is backed up by the International Energy Agency’s own data which shows that pursuing net-zero policies could create 14 million new jobs by 2030.”

“In short, pursuing an energy policy that is reliant on fossil fuels following the hottest ever recorded year on this planet would be a betrayal of future generations.  

“Instead of self-serving denial focused on profits, everyone in the energy industry needs to feel the urgency to deliver the energy transition as soon as possible.”

Head Keeper Savannah Alicia Hoogenboom, 31, holds a newborn pygmy hippo, at the Attica Zoological Park near Athens, Greece. REUTERS/Stelios Misinas

It’s an animal special in today’s spotlight as a rare and endangered pygmy hippopotamus was born in a zoo in Greece, while rescue dogs help children learn empathy in Spain.

In Athens’ Attica Zoological Park, a rare pygmy hippo was born – the first of its kind in 10 years. “This is the first birth in the zoo in 2024, and what a birth!” Noi Psaroudaki, the zoo’s wildlife veterinarian, told Reuters.

A lack of male pygmy hippos in captivity had complicated breeding efforts, so zoo staff were “absolutely thrilled” the baby was a boy, said Psaroudaki. Pygmy hippos are native to swamps and rainforests in western Africa. They are listed as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and it is estimated only about 2,000-2,500 still live in the wild.

Sara Cadenas explains to local school children what a Greyhound needs after being rescued. A shelter on the outskirts of Barcelona, Spain. REUTERS/Nacho Doce

Over in Spain, lanky greyhounds placidly let a bunch of beaming children pet them in the SOS Galgos shelter in the suburbs of Barcelona, where the rescued dogs are helping kids learn empathy for animals.

Known as ‘galgos’ in Spanish, greyhounds are used to track or catch game from rabbits to deer, but thousands of them are discarded in Spain every year when injured or just no longer in their prime. Shelters like SOS Galgos seek to find homes for the dogs.

Today’s Sustainable Switch was edited by Tomasz Janowski

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