24.3.2022
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
C 132/9 Wednesday 6 October 2021
13.
Regrets the fact that the EU external budget for supporting biodiversity policy remains considerably low in comparison with that earmarked for climate change policies; calls for an effective increase in funds for biodiversity protection, in line with the MFF agreement, and for technical assistance for the development of further resource mobilisation tools in order to respond to global commitments on biodiversity; stresses the need to track, report and phase out environmentally harmful subsidies, and to channel them towards biodiversity-friendly activities, in line with Agenda 2030 and the relevant international Conventions and obligations; calls for a significant share of EU official development assistance dedicated to climate action to be directed towards supporting biodiversity conservation co-benefits in climate mitigation and adaptation;
14.
Calls for the EU to pass a mandatory due diligence law to make companies and their financiers directly responsible for ensuring that their imports are not tainted by human rights abuses, such as land grabs and environmental degradation (including deforestation and biodiversity loss); more broadly, calls for the EU to require business and financial institutions to scale up their commitment to biodiversity, for example through robust and mandatory provisions on impact assessment, risk management, disclosure and external reporting requirements; invites the OECD to develop a set of practical actions on due diligence and biodiversity to support efforts by business;
15.
Welcomes the Commission’s commitment to develop a legislative proposal on mandatory human rights and environmental corporate due diligence for companies throughout their supply chains; recommends that this legislative proposal should support and facilitate the development of common methodologies for measuring the environmental and climate change impacts; stresses the importance of effective, meaningful and informed consultation of all affected or potentially affected stakeholders, such as human rights and environmental defenders, civil society, trade unions and IPLC; regrets the serious shortcomings in the implementation of the UN ‘Protect, Respect, Remedy’ framework and the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights with regard to both indigenous peoples’ rights and land rights; calls once again for the EU to engage constructively in the work of the UN Human Rights Council on an international legally binding instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises, which should include specific standards for the protection of indigenous people;
16.
Reiterates its request that the Commission urgently present a proposal for an EU legal framework to halt and reverse EU-driven global deforestation and forest degradation, which imposes on companies a requirement to conduct due diligence in order to ensure that the products placed on the EU market are not associated with deforestation, the conversion of natural ecosystems and violations of IPLC rights;
Policy coherence for development
17.
Recalls that the effectiveness of EU external biodiversity policy depends on policy coherence between biodiversity and other key EU external policies, such as trade and investment agreements;
18.
Notes that the IPBES 2019 global assessment report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services shows the limits of the approach of the protection of biodiversity through the spatial extent of terrestrial and marine protected areas, which account for some of the few Aichi Biodiversity Targets partially achieved;
19.
Highlights the fact that biodiversity is at the centre of many economic activities, particularly those related to crop and livestock agriculture, forestry, fisheries and many forms of tourism directly based on nature and healthy ecosystems; urges the EU to mainstream biodiversity and ecosystem services into all related policy areas, notably agriculture, fisheries, forestry, energy, mining, trade, tourism and climate change, as well as into development and poverty reduction policies and actions, and to promote innovative and implementable solutions to tackle biodiversity loss while ensuring healthy, safe, accessible and affordable food to all;
20.
Notes with deep concern that EU consumption accounts for around 10 % of the global share of deforestation, in particular through dependency on imports of agricultural commodities such as palm oil, meat, soy, cocoa, coffee, maize, timber and rubber; reiterates its call on the Commission to submit a proposal in 2021 for an EU legal framework to halt and reverse EU-driven global deforestation, by ensuring that EU markets and consumption patterns do not detrimentally affect forests and biodiversity in developing countries, taking account of the knock-on effects of this on their populations; calls for the EU to support such countries in implementing the sustainability of food systems, through the creation of short supply chains, the development of agro-ecology, support for small farmers, while ensuring land rights and the rights of local communities;