Here's the abstract:
The planned referendum on whether the UK should exit the European Union raises a great many questions about the UK’s relationship with the European Union (EU) and of the costs and benefits of EU membership. In the field of environmental policy, perhaps more than in any other area, the EU has had an overwhelmingly positive effect. Through its EU membership the UK government has been required to put in place a host of policies with strict targets that are legally binding, and to provide regular publicly available reports upon its performance in relation to those targets. If the UK exits from the EU but remains part of the European Economic Area the huge progress made in improving the UK environment could be lost in the absence of external pressure and auditing from EU actors, particularly in the areas of habitats, birds and bathing water, whilst the UK would still be subject to a wide range of EU laws but with little influence over their content. A total withdrawal suggests a much wider erosion of environmental policy, which is perhaps the intention of the right within and without of the Conservative Party, but one which risks significant environmental damage to the UK.
The planned referendum on whether the UK should exit the European Union raises a great many questions about the UK’s relationship with the European Union (EU) and of the costs and benefits of EU membership. In the field of environmental policy, perhaps more than in any other area, the EU has had an overwhelmingly positive effect. Through its EU membership the UK government has been required to put in place a host of policies with strict targets that are legally binding, and to provide regular publicly available reports upon its performance in relation to those targets. If the UK exits from the EU but remains part of the European Economic Area the huge progress made in improving the UK environment could be lost in the absence of external pressure and auditing from EU actors, particularly in the areas of habitats, birds and bathing water, whilst the UK would still be subject to a wide range of EU laws but with little influence over their content. A total withdrawal suggests a much wider erosion of environmental policy, which is perhaps the intention of the right within and without of the Conservative Party, but one which risks significant environmental damage to the UK.
This week the European Union published two significant reports showing the invaluable work that the EU has been doing over recent years and the importance of the continuation of the work into the future.
"The majority of habitats and species in Europe have an unfavourable conservation status despite significant improvements for many species in recent years, according to a new technical report published by the European Environment Agency (EEA) today. The report presents the most comprehensive European overview on the conservation status and trends of the habitats and species covered by the European Union’s (EU) two nature directives. Building on the reports submitted by EU member states, the report contributes to policy discussions in the context of the EU 2020 Biodiversity Strategy."
Follow these links for more information:
State of Nature in EU
SOER 2015 — The European environment — state and outlook 2015
And get the full reports here:
Download Synthesis Report
Download Technical Report
The synthesis report informs future European environmental policy in general and its implementation between 2015 and 2020 in particular. It includes a reflection on the European environment in a global context, as well as chapters summarising the state of, trends in, and prospects for the environment in Europe.
The European environment | State and outlook 2015
Foreword
The European Union has provided global environmental leadership for some 40 years. This report synthesises the information resulting from four decades of implementation of a well-defined and ambitious EU policy agenda. It represents the tip of the knowledge available to EEA and itsnetwork, Eionet.
The overall findings point to successes in reducing environmental pressures.
These achievements are especially remarkable when seen in the context of vastly changed European and global settings over the past decades. Without a strong policy agenda, the large growth of the economy over this period would have resulted in much stronger impacts on ecosystems and human health. The EU has demonstrated that well designed, binding policies work and deliver huge benefits.
In the 7th Environment Action Programme, 'Living well, within the limits of our planet', the EU formulates an engaging vision of the future to 2050: a low carbon society, a green, circular economy and resilient ecosystems, as the basis for citizens' well-being. Yet, looking ahead, this report, like its 2010 predecessor, highlights major challenges linked to unsustainable systems of production and consumption and their long-term, often complex,
and cumulative impacts on ecosystems and people's health. In addition, globalisation links Europeans to the rest of the world through a number of systems that enable the two-way flow of people, finance, materials and ideas.
This has brought us many benefits alongside concerns around the environmental impacts of our linear buy-use-dispose economy, our untenable dependency on many natural resources, an ecological footprint that exceeds the planet's capacity, external environmental impacts on poorer countries, and unequal distribution of the socio-ecological benefits from economic globalisation. Achieving the EU 2050 vision remains far from self-evident. Indeed the very idea of what it means to live within planetary limits is something that we have a hard time grasping.
What is clear, however, is that transforming key systems such as the transport, energy, housing and food systems lies at the heart of long‑term remedies. We will need to find ways to make them fundamentally sustainable, by them, making them much more resource efficient and making them compatible with ecosystem resilience. Also relevant is the redesign of the systems that have steered these provisioning systems and have created unsustainable lock-ins: finance, fiscal, health, legal and education.
The EU is leading the way through policies such as the 7th Environment Action Programme, the 2030 Climate and Energy package, the Europe 2020 Strategy and the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. These and other policies share similar goals and in different ways seek to balance social, economic and environmental considerations. Implementing and strengthening them smartly can help to push science and technological frontiers in Europe, create jobs and enhance competitiveness, while common approaches to solving shared problems make full economic sense.
As a knowledge actor, the EEA and its partners are responding to these challenges by designing a new knowledge agenda that links supporting policy implementation to an increased understanding of how to achieve more systemic long-term objectives. This is guided by innovations that break out of silo thinking, facilitate information sharing and integration and provide new indicators to enable policymakers to compare economic, social and environmental performance. Last but not least, foresight and other methods will be increasingly used to inform the pathways towards 2050.
The opportunities and challenges are equally huge. They require common purpose, commitments, efforts, ethics and investments from all of us.
Starting in 2015, we have 35 years to ensure that the children born today
will live on a sustainable planet by 2050. This may seem like a distant future,
but many of the decisions we make today will decide whether and how we
are going to deliver on this societal project. I hope that the content of the
SOER 2015 will support everyone who is looking for evidence, understanding and motivation.
Hans Bruyninckx, Executive Director
Biff Vernon 21/05/2015
No comments:
Post a Comment