*[Enwl-eng] Fw: Please support! Ten Points paper on EU Sustainable Taxonomy

[ENWLine]

 

 

Dear Henry:

The RwB Coalition members want to know what specific legal or technical standards referred to  in HYDROPOWER section by " Outside Europe, the EU’s stringent standards should be followed."???

The original "ten points" contained important meaningful requirements "Outside the EU, hydropower should never impact freshwater ecosystems of high ecological importance nor take place in protected areas. It should only be developed as a last resort when alternatives such as solar, wind or demand-side energy efficiency are unavailable. This should be based on comprehensive impact assessments and cost-benefits analyses which give nature, water conservation and human rights the same weight as economic, climate and energy issues."

The rest of this paragraph is related only to EU and implies that  other regions of the world will suffer less from further development of hydropower than the EU river basins. Without clarification what specifically we want from hydro in the rest of the world (which is reduced\omitted now)  this statement could be challenged from the standpoint of social justice, indigenous peoples rights and especially biodiversity conservation.

Cheers

Eugene Simonov

Rivers without Boundaries

On Thu, Apr 30, 2020 at 2:08 PM Henry Eviston <hevi...@wwf.eu> wrote:

Dear All,

Following the note below, I write again from Brussels (in slightly less of a panic) to ask you to support an updated 'Ten Points' text on the EU Taxonomy of Sustainable Activities. 

We have asked for your help many times already but we think it has never been more important that you continue your support in what is a key battle for the European sustainable agenda. As they prepare for the EU's announcement of a sustainable recovery, the EIB, the ECB, and many programmes such as InvestEU will soon use the Taxonomy to decide which activities to support - this alone will move hundreds of billions of euros. The taxonomy may also be a key instrument for the future EU Recovery Fund, which could amount to 1.5 trillion euros. 

 

We need these funds to be spent sustainably, so we are sending the EU Commission a strong signal. We aim to collect 100 signatures by 12h00 on the 11th of May: you can already submit yours through this Google Form. Please also forward this to your contacts. Should the Google Form not work for you, please contact me with your organisation's name, your full name, and your position/job title. 

For more details, see below.

---000---

State of Play

Last month, the EU's Technical Expert Group (TEG) published their recommendations on the EU Taxonomy of Sustainable Activities. Crucially, nuclear is out, fossil fuels are out, and waste incineration is also out, and we want to keep it that way. 

The report is relatively science-based and it integrates quite a number of issues that you helped us raise by signing last September's Ten Points Statement. 

For a more detailed reaction to the report, please see here.

What happens now?

As the public consultation is over, the Commission is now turning the technical recommendations into law. That means that the only avenue left to put pressure on the Commission is the media and informal contacts. Therefore, we propose sending the Ten Points document informally to key EU decision-makers and journalists so they know we are watching this process carefully. 

As we saw during last week's public consultation, lobbyists for nuclear, gas, incineration, bioenergy and others are still trying to attack the taxonomy in any way they can. 

We NGOs must respond to ask the Commission only to strengthen, not weaken, the taxonomy. We need to make sure the Commission understands that nuclear, gas, incineration, and other such activities do not belong in any sustainable taxonomy. 

What can I do?

1. Please check the 'Ten Points' text to see whether you can support it. We kept many points from the first Ten Points text and we are trying to make this text short and simple - remember it is a petition rather than a detailed briefing! For any red lines, please contact me directly.

2. To signal your support, use this Google Form. 

If the Google Form does not work, reply to me directly stating your:

Organisation, Signatory's Position

Signatory Name and Surname

3. Please circulate to your contacts! We achieved 60 signatures for the last letter. Now we aim for 100!

---000---

As always, do not hesitate to write to me should you have any questions.

Best wishes,

Henry

On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 9:16 PM Henry Eviston <hevi...@wwf.eu> wrote:

Dear all,

Following your support for our previous appeals for signatures on the EU Taxonomy, we are coming back to you with a further update and a slightly worrying warning.

State of Play

You may have seen that, last month, the EU's Technical Expert Group (TEG) published their recommendations on the EU Taxonomy of Sustainable Activities - see the 'Technical Annex' here.

The report is relatively science-based and it integrated quite a number of issues that you helped us raise last September in the previous Ten Points Statement. Crucially, nuclear is out, fossil fuels are out, and waste incineration is also out. For more detail on our reaction to the report, see here.

What happens now?

We have put together another, updated, 'Ten Points' text, which we will soon ask you to sign, so we can forward it informally to key advocacy targets inside the Commission. 

However, the urgent thing is the Commission's consultation on the TEG technical recommendations, which closes next Monday 27/04. It is the last chance for public input before the Commission turns the criteria into the definitive taxonomy law (known as a delegated act). The page to submit this input is here. 

Now for the worrying bit. The nuclear and gas lobbies have already flooded this consultation page with answers, demanding that nuclear be re-included, asking for weaker thresholds on emissions, looking for more exemptions for biofuels... the usual!

European environmental NGOs must respond. It is important that we send lots of replies: the Commission will not read these consultations in detail, but will instead simply look at which activities are most discussed and whether their criteria are broadly opposed or supported. We need to make sure the Commission understands that nuclear, gas, and incineration do not belong in the sustainable taxonomy. 

What can I do?

Attached, you will find a template response to the consultation. Its length is adapted to the consultation's strict 4000-character limit.  

Could we ask you to

• Slightly modify/adapt the responses so they do not appear completely identical - copy-pasting weakens individual responses).
• Go to the consultation response page - click here - you may have to register, but please do!
• Submit your answers!

Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you need any clarification or if we can assist with this process - we are happy to help.

Best wishes,

Henry

--

HENRY EVISTON | Sustainable Finance Policy Officer | 

WWF European Policy Office | 

123 rue du Commerce,1000 Brussels, Belgium | 

EU Transparency Register Nr: 1414929419-24 | 

Mobile: +44 770 602 5686 | 

www.wwf.eu | 

 

 

From: eugene simonov

To: Henry Eviston;  (...); vf...@lew.spb.org; (...)

Sent: Friday, May 08, 2020 2:55 PM

Subject: Re: Please support! Ten Points paper on EU Sustainable Taxonomy

 

 

---

------------- *  ENWL  * ------------
Ecological North West Line * St. Petersburg, Russia
Independent Environmental Net Service
Russian: ENWL (North West), ENWL-inf (FSU), ENWL-misc (any topics)
English: ENWL-eng (world information)
Send information to en...@lew.spb.org, enwl...@lew.spb.org, en...@lew.spb.org, en...@lew.spb.org
Subscription, Moderator: vf...@lew.spb.org or en...@enw.net.ru
Archive: http://groups.google.com/group/enwl/
Additionally: http://www.enwl.net.ru/
 (C) Please refer to exclusive articles of ENWL
-------------------------------------