In the context of the negotiations on EU climate law, governmental and parliamentarian advisory councils have been following the debate on the possible establishment of a Climate Change Council at European level with great interest.

In the context of the negotiations – that were wrapped-up on 21 April – the advisory councils sent a letter to the European Council, the Portuguese Environment Minister, the European Commission’s EVP Frans Timmermans, and members of Parliament to share their views on the added value that advisory councils have, and how this added value would also apply to a potential European Climate Change Council. This letter was sent last March.

Following this first letter and upon the invitation of EU institutions, the advisory councils sent an addendum that included their insights on the mandate, tasks, composition and governance of a European Climate Change Council (ECCC). The addendum was sent in early April and also addressed the EU co-legislators.

EEAC member councils are tasked to advise their governments and parliaments on issues related to the environment and sustainable development. In this part of the EEAC Newsletter you will find the latest publications by EEAC member councils.

Interest in the use of hydrogen as a source of sustainable energy is increasing, both in the Netherlands and internationally. There are many places where this is being discussed and publicised. Opinions differ as to the deployability of hydrogen and the conditions under which this should take place. This raises a number of key questions: A) What is the significance of climate-neutral hydrogen as a feedstock, fuel and energy carrier in a sustainable Dutch economy? B) How realistic are the forecasts with regard to hydrogen and are the blueprints for the future consistent with them? C) What is the strategic importance of hydrogen for the Netherlands? And D) what does the strategic importance of hydrogen mean for the efforts of the Dutch government and others? The Dutch Council for the Environment and Infrastructure (Rli) addresses these questions in its advisory report entiteled Hydrogen: the missing link. Read More

 

In In its recent status update, the Danish Council on Climate Change (DCCC) concluded that despite a number of climate policy agreements in Denmark, the Danish government is not likely to achieve the target of a 70% reduction of greenhouse gases by 2030. In the update, the DCCC touches upon the primary reasons for the expected inability to meet the 2030 reduction targets and introduces a set of recommendations that should support the Danish government in reaching the targets.
 
The primary reason for this is that the government has not drawn up a concrete plan on how to fill two-thirds of the emissions reduction gap remaining after implementation of the agreements adopted. Furthermore, the government largely bases the remaining effort on new technologies without a proper plan on how to achieve the reductions, the DCCC argued. The DCCC concluded its update by stating that the EU is likely to increase its overall reduction target for 2030 from 40 percent to at least 55 percent. This suggests that Denmark and other Member States will be faced by tighter obligations than those currently in place. Read More

There is a prevailing narrative around the decline of rural areas in Ireland. This is not unique to the Irish context with international studies also looking at concerns around rural vitality. This narrative is associated predominately with a decline in the agricultural sector, urbanisation and the decline of opportunities in rural areas. In this paper by the National Economic and Social Council aims to quantitatively establish how rural areas have changed and qualitatively identify opportunities based on the findings of an expert group. Read More

A duo of Belgian advisory councils, including the Federal Council for Sustainable Development (FRDO-CFDD), were asked by the government for their opinion on the strategic direction of the draft Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP). This request for an opinion forms part of the European process whereby Belgium, like every EU Member State, must submit its Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) to the European Commission by 30 April 2021 in order to benefit from the Recovery and Resilience Facility. In the context of the opinion of the Belgian councils, a publication by the Irish National Economic and Social Council (NESC) is also of interest. The NESC stresses in this opinion the importance and value of grounding the recovery in sustainable development.
 

The OECD and EEAC Network organised a joint webinar on the findings from the OECD’s Making Better Policies for Food Systems report. The report brings together decades of OECD research and policy recommendations in a coherent view on food systems to support policymakers around the world in developing better policies for food systems. Following a presentation on the report by the authors, an assessment of the report and possible policy implications from the perspective of the European Environment and Sustainable Development Advisory Councils Network was shared. Experts from the German Council on Global Change, the Dutch Council on the Environment and Infrastructure and the Council for the Sustainable Development of Catalonia contributed. Following the presentation and reflections, interaction on the performance of the global food system followed. Participants also discussed the design of coherent policies, factors complicating the task of achieving better policies and key priorities for food system policy approaches. You can view the session recordings here.
 

Report presentation Hydrogen: the missing link

The board of the EEAC Network has reconfirmed the network’s partnership with the European Sustainable Development Week initiative. The ESDW is a European-wide initiative to stimulate and highlight activities, projects and events that promote sustainable development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Arnau Queralt Bassa (Chairman EEAC Network) stated that ‘a transition towards a more sustainable Europe, requires all Europeans to engage’. In that context, the European Sustainable Development Week initiative is of major importance, he underlined. This year, the ESDW will take place this year from 18 September to 8 October, with the core of the Week taking place between 20 September and 26 September 2021.
 

source: www.eeac.eu

NFFT discusses a more circular construction sector

Rli will publish English version of its report "digitalisation & the transition towards a sustainable society"

Save the date: 19th ESDN Workshop