The European Commissioner for the Environment, Virginijus Sinkevicius, warned on Tuesday that without a “healthy” nature it will not be possible to guarantee food security, as he intervened in a debate in the European Parliament on the consequences of drought, fires and other extreme weather events.
The natural disasters experienced this summer in Europe and the rest of the world are “another warning” of the climate crisis, said the Lithuanian politician, who warned that “without a healthy and resilient nature, there will be no food security.”
The commissioner admitted that the European Union (EU) is “delayed” in its response to the climate crisis, but hopes that it will not be “too late” if measures are taken in the meantime.
The new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which will come into force in 2023 and which promotes greener agriculture, as well as biodiversity strategies and the idea “from the producer to the table”, is the community plan for farmers to be “more resilient” in the face of biodiversity loss and climate change”, whose consequences “they are already facing”.
“Our policy is an insurance policy for the future of the entire (agricultural) sector, so dependent on healthy nature,” the commissioner told the European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg, France.
Sinkevicius said that the “terrible events” that have taken place this summer in Europe and around the world, such as droughts, fires and floods, show that “climate change and biodiversity loss are advancing faster and faster”, and questioned how many more alerts are needed to act.
He said this summer has seen “an alarming acceleration and expansion of forest fires in Europe” and “although the season is not over yet, it has already broken all records”.
The European commissioner has added that the heat “is exhausting the population, affecting well-being, certain jobs and activities”, and has also stated that “for the younger generations, this may have been the coldest summer they have ever experienced” .
Source: Observadora
