Europe Moves to Protect Nature, but Faces Criticism Over Subsidizing Farms

The European Union’s biodiversity proposal also seeks to reduce the use of harmful pesticides by 50 percent by 2030

The European Union’s Environment Council on Friday endorsed the proposal by the president of the European Union to create protected areas for 30 percent of the continent’s land and water by 2030, along with legally binding measures to tighten forest protections.

But Europe’s governing body also was criticized by environmental and climate activists for not curbing agricultural subsidies that drive pollution.

Britain, Canada and the state of California have made similar conservation pledges in recent months. Their promises, mostly without detailed road maps, come in the wake of a major United Nations-backed scientific report that calls for transformative changes in the way humans use the Earth’s land and waters in order to avoid dire consequences, including threats to the global food supply and health.

Whether those changes will be made soon enough depends on what nations of the world can agree to when they begin negotiations next year on a new global agreement to protect nature at an international summit scheduled to take place in Kunming, China. A draft proposal for those negotiations seeks for countries of the world to protect at least 30 percent of the planet, among other goals. Recent studies have offered road maps on which areas offer the most value for biodiversity and carbon storage.