The EU's common mandate for the UN climate change conference in Dubai, the preparation of a new directive on urban waste water treatment and the discussion on the negotiation of a new global agreement on plastics were the main topics of the regular meeting of EU Ministers of the Environment held in Luxembourg on Monday 16 October. The Czech delegation was led by Environment Minister Petr Hladík (KDU-ČSL), who also took part in a number of bilateral meetings.

The Environment Council unanimously adopts joint conclusions setting out the EU and its member states' position for the UN climate conference (COP 28) to be held in November and December this year. In the agreed position, the EU stresses, inter alia, the need to phase out the use of fossil fuels globally and advocates an early end to their support. The Council conclusions also call for a tripling of installed renewable energy capacity and a doubling of the rate of energy efficiency improvements globally by 2030.

"I am very pleased that after a long discussion we have found a consensus on what the European Union will bring to COP 28 and also on the approach to national targets. Europe, China and America are doing a lot to reduce CO2 and other gases, but overall global emissions are still rising. That is why we will go to COP 28 as Europe, with the aim of breaking this trend by 2025 at the latest, so that total emissions start to fall globally. Another of the important things we discussed is the agreement to abandon subsidies for any fossil fuels," explains Czech Minister of the Environment Petr Hladík.

At the same time, Member States endorsed an updated EU contribution to the Paris Agreement, confirming the current target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 % by 2030.

The Ministers for the Environment also adopted the so-called general approach to the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive. This is a major revision of the Directive which, in addition to tightening existing obligations, introduces a number of new requirements for Member States for the period 2025-2040. The aim is not only to reduce water pollution, but also to reduce microplastics or substances that cause eutrophication of surface and groundwater. In practice, this means taking wastewater treatment to the next evolutionary step. Firstly, by making the obligations of the Directive apply to smaller municipalities than is the case today, but also by improving treatment options. This means gradually introducing additional, i.e. quaternary, treatment to capture a wide range of micropollutants from urban wastewater.

"The quality of wastewater, its use and what we discharge into our rivers is increasingly important. The climate is changing, meaning that we have different periods when there is more drought and when there is less water in the rivers and therefore higher concentrations of toxic substances, so it is important to clean more. Not only to remove nitrogen and phosphorus, but to focus on a higher level of purification that also captures microplastics or antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals. Of course, this means further investment, but the result will be cleaner and better quality water," comments Minister Hladík. Negotiations will now begin with the European Parliament with the aim of approving the new directive before the European elections next spring.

Ministers also discussed the forthcoming UN international treaty to reduce plastic pollution, both on land and in the seas. For the Czech Republic, the reduction of plastic waste and the principles of the circular economy are a long-term priority and it actively supports all the efforts of the intergovernmental negotiating committee, whose first meeting took place during the Czech EU Presidency in 2022.

During the Council meeting, Minister Hladík also discussed the financing of decarbonisation projects and the current version of the National Energy and Climate Plan with European Commission Executive Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič, who has now taken over the Green Deal for Europe agenda. As part of the Czech Presidency of the Visegrad Group, the traditional V4 coordination meeting was also held, to which representatives of Bulgaria and Romania were invited.

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