The EU restoration plan was postponed in March, yet passed in August – what will it do, and will the UK do something similar?

What will it do?

• Restore at least 20% of the EU’s land and sea areas by 2030 
• Restore all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050 
• Set legally binding targets for nature restoration in terrestrial, marine, freshwater, and urban ecosystems 
• Maintain and increase urban green space and urban tree canopy cover 
• Restore at least 25,000 km of rivers into free-flowing rivers by 2030 
• Plant at least three billion additional trees by 2030 

This plan was dropped in March as a result of Hungary blocking it, as well as Austria and a variety of other groups. It is unfortunate, that often in order to meet an agreement, the environmental rules are often watered down so much as to become meaningless. It was cleared, after Austria changed its mind (it should be noted that the Hungarian MEPs were in favour and it is only the Hungarian government that got in the way – as they often are; unfortunately the leader of Hungary Victor Orban is not helpful, and is often the block for the EU. Whether this will change in the near future is anyones guess.

Still this will have to be implemented across the continent to be useful. Having said this, should it be successful it is likely to have a big impact.