FRENCH PRESIDENCY:Informal Meetings of Environment and Energy Ministers, Amiens, 20–22 January

 

18/01/2022 00:00 | Article Informal Meetings of Environment and Energy Ministers, Amiens, 20–22 January This informal meeting will be made up of a series of sessions dedicated to environmental challenges, attended by environment ministers, and a series dedicated to energy challenges attended by energy ministers. All of the ministers will meet for two joint sessions: one on the role of forests and the wood industry in climate, energy and environmental policies and one on the “just transition”. Informal Meetings of Environment and Energy Ministers, Amiens, 20–22 January Published on January 18, 2022 Seals in baie de Somme© Laurent Mignaux / Terra This informal meeting will be made up of a series of sessions dedicated to environmental challenges, attended by environment ministers, and a series dedicated to energy challenges attended by energy ministers. All of the ministers will meet for two joint sessions: one on the role of forests and the wood industry in climate, energy and environmental policies and one on the “just transition”. Environmental challenges Protecting natural environments and improving human health will be central to the environment ministers’ talks. The first session will focus on European action regarding phytosanitary products. In its “Farm to Fork” and “Biodiversity” strategies, the European Union set itself the goal of cutting pesticide use in half by 2030. Achieving this goal means collectively carrying out the agroecological transition, in particular by ensuring that imported foodstuffs are produced in compliance with EU environmental and health standards. The focus of the discussions will be best practices in the EU Member States concerning the implementation of measures to reduce plant protection product use and the provisions to be incorporated into a harmonised European framework. The ministers will also address measures to ensure Europe’s high food safety standards are applied to imports of foodstuffs treated using phytosanitary products. They will also have the opportunity to discuss the need to ensure that dangerous chemicals banned on the internal market are not produced for export outside the EU. Talks will then hone in on the EU’s chemicals strategy for sustainability. Several pivotal texts will be recast by the end of 2022, including the Reach Regulation and the Classification, Packaging and Labelling Regulation (“CLP Regulation”). Other projects on the agenda will include examining measures to stop dangerous chemicals banned in the EU being produced for export. Ministerial debates will identify measures to be taken to effectively implement the chemical management framework for the protection of the environment and public health (the “One Health” approach). The third item on the environment ministers’ agenda is the fight against imported deforestation. The Commission published a proposal for a regulation on 17 November 2021 that aims to prevent goods from supply chains associated with deforestation and forest degradation from being imported into the EU. This draft regulation also aims to increase European demand for deforestation-free products. During this informal ministerial meeting, the environment ministers will highlight best practices, products and ecosystems to prioritise as well as cooperation with third countries, with the aim of ensuring that European action against deforestation is as effective as possible. Energy matters As for the energy ministers, they will continue ongoing debates that began in the European Council and the Council of Ministers, on protecting consumers from extremely volatile and historically high gas and electricity prices, while pursuing the Union’s climate goals. The primacy of energy efficiency, a principle based on reducing energy consumption and waste as a key lever, must be more systematically taken into account in public policy. Building this principle into other national and European climate change policies will be at the heart of the ministers’ talks whether they concern combatting energy precarity, security of supply, innovation or competitiveness. Furthermore, the energy ministers will examine the outline for the new hydrogen economy: how to speed up the development of low-carbon hydrogen, while addressing current uncertainty regarding the technological difficulty of producing it and its place in Europe’s energy mix in the future. Two joint sessions on energy and the environment The environment and energy ministers will also meet to discuss closely overlapping climate, environment and energy challenges. In the first joint session, together they will define the role in these policies of forests and the forestry sector and how to juggle the various challenges they face. This will namely concern enhancing carbon sinks and increasing renewable energy production. Forests are at the heart of the European Green Deal and the EU’s transition to carbon neutrality. Lastly, the ministers will consider the principles of the just transition and a green transition that is socially acceptable. The transition to a carbon-free economy and society involves major transformations that will change how we consume, produce, work, exchange and coexist. For it to be a success, Europe must ensure it is a socially just and inclusive transition that meets the needs of the most vulnerable people and places in society.