The National Economic and Social Council (Ireland) published today (18/2/2021) a council statement ‘Grounding the Recovery in Sustainable Development’. In it statement the Council argues that ‘rising to the challenge and seeing the possibility of change, as demonstrated by our response to Covid-19, is needed to tackle the climate change and biodiversity crises. The Council also sets out the importance and value of grounding the recovery in sustainable development.
The Council, which represents interests and stakeholders from across the private sector, Government, social and community organisations, independent experts and the environmental pillar, believe that ‘we as an society are at a moment to reset. Government has set out its committed to more ambitious action on climate in the Programme for Government’. Such reset could be reached through ambition and action to reduce emissions and restore biodiversity. Such action is necessary and urgent and can also drive the recovery, while also meeting our commitments in the Paris Climate Agreement and deliver the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, the Council argued.
The Council will continue to contribute to the framing and analysis of sustainable development and climate action, including the importance of just transition and engagement. It is probing what cities need to do to be resilient; exploring what will enable communities to be more economically resilient and how to place conditions on State investment to make it greener. Read More
The EEAC Network aims to enrich the advice that individual advisory bodies can give to their governments and parliaments, to bridge the gap between scientific knowledge and policy making and to connect the work of the (sub)national councils and the European policy level with regard to climate change, the environment and sustainable development. To achieve these aims, the board of the EEAC Network presents the Annaul Plan 2021. The Plan is a framework for action, including: a list of thematic areas of common interest; proposed exchange and activities as well as an overview of the tentative agendas of the EEAC member bodies.
The Minister and the Secretary General of the Ministry for Environment and Climate Action of Portugal provided an EEAC-exclusive policy briefing on the agenda of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The member councils of the EEAC met with the Minister and the Secretary General online on Februari 17th 2021.
Portugal took over the Presidency of the European Council on January 1st 2021. The Portuguese Presidency organized its programme around five main pillars: A) Resilient Europe; B) Social Europe; C) Green Europe; E) Digital Europe; and F) Global Europe. In the e-presentation the ‘Green Europe’ pillar was centre-staged.
The Presidency has an ambitious agenda, including the finalization of the EU climate law, approval of the EU’s Circular Economy Strategy and a successful wrap-up of the negotiations on the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy. A packed Presidency agenda that needs to be delivered amidst the challenges of the covid19-pandemic.
The German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) presented its recent publication, entitled: ‘Rethinking Land in the Anthropocene: from Separation to Integration’ to the colleagues of the EEAC Network. The session took place on February 11th . During the hour-long session, Jan Siegmeier and Susanne Neubert (WBGU) presented the findings and recommendations of the report, and engaged in collegial exchange. Read More
The secretariat of Belgium’s Federal Council for Sustainable Development (FRDO-CFDD) regularly produces an update on relevant developments with regard to the UN 2030 Agenda. In the first edition of 2021, the FRDO highlights a wide variety of issues, including SDGs and the EU, the relation between the SDGs and the Covid19-pandemic, as well as the issue of climate adaptation in the global south. Click here to consult the overview.