Prague will host an informal meeting of European environment ministers, the Ukrainian minister will also come
On July 13 and 14, 2022, an informal meeting of environment ministers of EU countries is being held in Prague. The conservation of nature and biodiversity, the effects of the war in Ukraine on the environment and adaptation to climate change will be discussed.
The meeting will be attended by First Vice-President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans, European Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevičius and Ukrainian Minister of the Environment Ruslan Strilets.
Biodiversity – a new global framework for biodiversity
In Prague, the ministers will discuss the EU’s joint mandate at the December UN Conference on Biological Diversity (COP15) in Montreal. A new strategic document, the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), is to be adopted here, an important global plan for the conservation, protection, restoration, sustainable use and management of biodiversity and ecosystems for the next ten years. Adopting a global framework will require finding a compromise between all parties to the CBD. It is therefore important to clarify, as part of the preparation, what are the positions and fundamental priorities for the EU member states, what must the new framework contain and how to achieve its approval.
“The results of COP15 can affect the state of biodiversity for a long time. Our task will be to come later and prove the position for the EU and be able to transform it into a global framework. This is an extremely demanding assignment,” said Ladislav Miko, adviser to Anna Hubáčková at the Ministry of the Environment.
Impacts of the war in Ukraine on the environment
The war in Ukraine brings, in addition to other serious life consequences, a threat to the environment there. It is already necessary to start mapping the damage to the environment and nature and to focus on suitable projects to restore the country. EU ministers will discuss with the Ministry of Ukraine, Ruslan Strilets, how the EU and its member states can help limit, monitor and then repair the environmental damage caused by the war.
“I am very glad that my Ukrainian colleague accepted my invitation and will come to Prague to share with us his personal experience of the environmental damage caused by Russian aggression against Ukraine and how it is possible to help mitigate and correct it,” she said the Ministry of the Environment and President of the EU Council for the Environment Anna Hubáčková.
Adaptation to climate change (water, nature and soil protection)
An effective tool in adapting to climate change is the protection and restoration of functional ecosystems. More biologically diverse ecosystems are better able to adapt to constantly changing conditions, and can thus continue to provide ecosystem services important to humans (e.g. food, clean water, favorable air, etc.). Support for the protection and restoration of biodiversity must go hand in hand with the proper implementation of the Water Framework Directive, a targeted soil protection strategy and new rules to reduce deforestation and forest degradation.
Although the proposals for the protection of individual elements of nature (water, climate, forests, soil) are now in different stages of the European legislative process, the discussion between the EU environment ministries is important in order to link the topics, to find mutual coherence and effectiveness and to prevent possible unwanted negative effects of future European regulations.
The road to the COP27 climate change conference
An important task within the informal councils is also the direction of EU mandates for the annual UN climate change conference (COP27), which will take place in November in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. The results of the informal closed meeting of ministers from Prague will be key to the approval of the mandate at the October meeting of the Council for the Environment. The EU and the member states want to build on the commitments agreed at the previous conference in Glasgow. This is mainly about accelerating the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, mobilizing funds for protection against climate change, supporting adaptation to climate change and increasing climate resilience.
“In a closed debate, we will discuss how the EU will promote a global shift away from fossil fuels, but the Russian – or precisely because of – the effects of aggression in Ukraine,” said Jan Dusík, deputy of the Ministry of the Environment, who is the government’s representative for international negotiations on change climate during the Czech EU presidency.