{"id":136293,"date":"2025-01-02T07:52:55","date_gmt":"2025-01-02T05:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/news\/former-eu-environment-chief-warns-against-backsliding-on-climate-crisis\/"},"modified":"2025-01-02T07:52:55","modified_gmt":"2025-01-02T05:52:55","slug":"former-eu-environment-chief-warns-against-backsliding-on-climate-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/news\/former-eu-environment-chief-warns-against-backsliding-on-climate-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Former EU environment chief warns against backsliding on climate crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mp_wrapper\">\n  <div class=\"mepr-unauthorized-message\">\n    <p>You are unauthorized to view this page.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n  <div class=\"mepr-login-form-wrap\">\n            \n<div class=\"mp_wrapper mp_login_form\">\n                  <!-- mp-login-form-start -->     <form name=\"mepr_loginform\" id=\"mepr_loginform\" class=\"mepr-form\" action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/\" method=\"post\" data-trp-original-action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/\">\n            <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_username\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n                              <label for=\"user_login\">Username<\/label>\n        <\/div>\n        <input type=\"text\" name=\"log\" id=\"user_login\" value=\"\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_password\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n          <label for=\"user_pass\">Password<\/label>\n          <div class=\"mp-hide-pw\">\n            <input type=\"password\" name=\"pwd\" id=\"user_pass\" value=\"\" \/>\n            <button type=\"button\" class=\"button mp-hide-pw hide-if-no-js\" data-toggle=\"0\" aria-label=\"Show password\">\n              <span class=\"dashicons dashicons-visibility\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n            <\/button>\n          <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n            <div>\n        <label><input name=\"rememberme\" type=\"checkbox\" id=\"rememberme\" value=\"forever\" \/> Remember Me<\/label>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n      <div class=\"submit\">\n        <input type=\"submit\" name=\"wp-submit\" id=\"wp-submit\" class=\"button-primary mepr-share-button\" value=\"Log In\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"redirect_to\" value=\"\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136293\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_process_login_form\" value=\"true\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_is_login_page\" value=\"false\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n    <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"trp-form-language\" value=\"en\"\/><\/form>\n    <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n    <div class=\"mepr-login-actions\">\n        <a\n          href=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/?action=forgot_password\"\n          title=\"Click here to reset your password\"\n        >\n          Forgot Password        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n\n      \n    <!-- mp-login-form-end --> \n  <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"smart_content_wrapper\">\n<p>A former EU environment commissioner has warned against backsliding on the protection of nature and the battle against the climate crisis after the bloc decided to delay its landmark deforestation law. Virginijus Sinkevi\u010dius, the Lithuanian MEP and a vice-president of the European parliament\u2019s Green group, said he disagreed with the decision to amend the deforestation law in order to give companies a year of extra time to ensure their products are not implicated in the felling of trees.<\/p>\n<p>Every EU law \u201cis born through a very difficult negotiation where everyone needs to give ground a bit\u201d, he told the Guardian. \u201cA last-minute change does not give credibility to the EU\u2019s decision-making.\u201d Sinkevi\u010dius, who was EU environment commissioner for nearly five years until July, was responsible for drafting the legislation, which will ban the sale in the EU of commodities linked to deforestation such as cocoa, coffee, soy, palm oil and rubber, as well as products, including chocolate, leather and furniture.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, the EU agreed a one-year delay to the lawafter intensive lobbying from industry and forested countries around the world. Sinkevi\u010dius said problems with implementing the law could have been tackled with a grace period, rather than reopening negotiations between EU lawmakers. \u201cThat additional year was a bit of a reward to those who did not try hard enough in order to comply with the legislation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the biggest companies, he said, were waiting for the law to apply, because it brings \u201cfair competition\u201d. He said businesses that were trying to avoid deforestation faced additional costs, against competitors that would \u201ccut corners\u201d on nature protection and yet \u201cbe on the same shelf in the shop\u201d. In 2023, 6.37m hectares of forests worldwide were lost to cattle raising, crop growing, mining, road building or devastating fires among other causes, according to the Forest Declaration Assessment.<\/p>\n<p>Sinkevi\u010dius was speaking at the start of a new five-year term for the EU institutions, with growing pressure to roll back elements of the green agenda. MEPs in the European parliament, which has a record number of far-right lawmakers, have proposed cancelling the 2035 ban on selling petrol and diesel cars, as well as suspending pollution trading (a CO2 reduction strategy) for heavy industry.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking in general about green policies, Sinkevi\u010dius said \u201cit would be the biggest possible mistake to now shift to reverse gear\u201d, adding that the \u201cclean industrial deal\u201d promised by the new commission in its first 100 days would be \u201can important first test of how we see our economy of the future\u201d. Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, has pledged a \u201cclean industrial deal\u201d for \u201ccompetitive industries and quality jobs\u201d although details remain sparse.<\/p>\n<p>Sinkevi\u010dius was the EU\u2019s youngest ever commissioner when he took charge of EU policy on environment, fisheries and oceans in 2019, aged 28. Protecting nature was always an \u201cuphill battle\u201d, he said, as business sees fewer opportunities in conserving soil, forests, seas and oceans than investing in clean energy. But he expressed confidence that the new commission had not forgotten nature protection, despite the headline focus on Europe\u2019s lagging economy.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2025\/jan\/01\/former-eu-environment-chief-warns-against-backsliding-on-climate-crisis\">Read more&gt;&gt;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source: <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2025\/jan\/01\/former-eu-environment-chief-warns-against-backsliding-on-climate-crisis\">The Guardian<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/environmental-news-en\/former-eu-environment-chief-warns-against-backsliding-on-climate-crisis\/\">Former EU environment chief warns against backsliding on climate crisis<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\">Vastuullisuusuutiset.fi<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[575,17452,4171],"class_list":["post-136293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-environmental-news-en","tag-eu-environment-commissioner","tag-former"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}