The European Commission must put the Nature Restoration Law back on track

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Today the European Commission postponed the announcement of the EU Nature Restoration Law proposal without setting a new date for publication. We call on the Commission to quickly set a new date and not to weaken the ambitions for restoration.

Despite the pleas of more than 13,000 EU citizens166 environmental NGOs expressing support of the law and asking for it not to be delayed, today the Commission ignored the many voices united for strengthening the health of the ecosystems such as peatlands, wetlands and rivers upon which are vital to solving the interlinked crises of climate and biodiversity.

Along with many other NGOs, we call on the Commission to set a new date for the proposal to be launched within a month, and not to give in to special interests seeking to weaken the proposal.

There is no time to lose in restoring our degraded ecosystems to better health. Delaying the restoration law jeopardises the European Green Deal’s ambitions to transform society while restoring the ecosystems we depend upon – which are vital for climate change mitigation and carbon storage, support healthy biodiversity such as migratory waterbirds and fish, and the wellbeing of the EU’s citizens through services such as drought and flood prevention and clean water.

Climate change and biodiversity loss are urgent crises threatening humanity that must solved together this decade. As emphasised by the recent report by IPBES, climate change cannot be solved without nature and healthy ecosystems. Ambitious restoration targets are needed to restore the many types of wetland habitats listed on Annex I of the Habitats Directive, rewet peatlands and remove obsolete barriers to restore free-flowing rivers.