The 2024 elections will be decisive for future national and European environmental policy, say environmental groups, who welcome the assessment of Lisbon’s new airport and lament the poor Nature Recovery Act.
In their assessments, as well as regarding future prospects, the Zero and ANP/WWF associations warn of the importance of the upcoming elections in 2024, which could change everything in the environmental field.
Zero hopes that in Portugal there will be no “advancement of political forces advocating failures in environmental policy” in the March legislative elections and says the European elections will show whether the European Union continues to lead the charge for sustainability or, as has been hinted in recent months , “he will deviate towards conservatism and the protection of selfish interests.”
For ANP/WWF, this election is an opportunity to begin a new cycle of hope for nature, biodiversity and citizens, and to demonstrate how and whether the parties will protect people and restore nature.
In its 2023 assessment, Zero highlights as positive the completion of the strategic environmental assessment of the future location of Lisbon Airport, the increase in the number of days with exceptional consumption of electricity generated from renewable sources, the approval of the National Strategy to Combat Energy Poverty, or Portugal’s decision to withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty.
As negatives, he cites the delay in the implementation of the Basic Climate Law, the increase in carbon dioxide emissions, the entry into force of the “ecological simplex”, which is negative for sustainability, and what he calls the “conservative drift” of European policy. Parliament., which weakened the Commission’s legislative proposals, such as the Nature Recovery Act or the provisions on packaging and packaging waste.
Katarina Grilo, director of policy and conservation at ANP/WWF, also cites the example of the Nature Recovery Act, which was supposed to pave the way for the Sustainable Food Systems Act, but “pressure from conservative groups” led to the proposal being weakened. and this legislation would be a “missed opportunity” to stop the urgent loss of habitat and diversity.
Thus, the Nature Recovery Act enters the negative side of 2023, a year marked positively by the assessment of a new airport, the creation of a voluntary carbon market, the expectation of achieving the goal of protecting the marine environment by 2026, or the European Deforestation Law (the fight against global deforestation, driven by EU consumption), among other topics on the ANP/WW list.
Zero, while regretting that laws such as soil protection (delayed eight years ago), a packaging storage system planned for 2022, or a national noise strategy promised four years ago have been delayed, hopes that 2024 will be the year resumption The Portuguese Environmental Protection Agency (APA), after “many years of inactivity”, guarantees the “suitability and quality” of its work.
The coming year will also be the year of review of the National Energy and Climate Plan and the Roadmap to Achieving Carbon Neutrality. And the start of selective collection of biowaste throughout the country, recalls Zero.
By 2024, ANP/WWF wants to achieve mandatory removal of outdated river barriers and increased investment in nature conservation.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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