Campaigners accuse political parties of 'poisoning debate' around rewetting proposal

A rally outside Leinster House organised jointly by Environmental Pillar, Stop Climate Chaos, the Sustainable Water Network (SWAN), and Extinction Rebellion called on political parties to support the European Commission's Nature Restoration Law proposal. Picture: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie

Politicians from Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, and Sinn Féin are "caving in to misinformation and hysteria spread to derail the most important piece of biodiversity legislation to come out of Europe in 30 years", environmental activists have said.

A rally outside Leinster House organised jointly by Environmental Pillar, Stop Climate Chaos, the Sustainable Water Network (SWAN), and Extinction Rebellion called on political parties to support the European Commission's Nature Restoration Law proposal.

The European Commission's proposal to restore ecosystems would be the first continent-wide law of its kind and calls "for binding targets to restore degraded ecosystems, in particular those with the most potential to capture and store carbon and to prevent and reduce the impact of natural disasters".

Elements include 35% of land that has previously been drained for agriculture being rewetted by 2050. Rewetting ostensibly means bringing back a natural water flow and saturating peatland in order to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other benefits such as reducing wildfire risks and enhancing biodiversity.

However, a number of Irish MEPs have pushed back on supporting the proposal, claiming it would disproportionately affect Irish agriculture negatively, which environmental figures say is not true.

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The rally heard from Pádraic Fogarty of the Irish Wildlife Trust, who accused Fine Gael of "poisoning debate" around the proposal. He also aimed fire at Sinn Féin on its climate and biodiversity credentials, claiming it is no better than other parties on the “greatest catastrophe humanity has ever faced”.

Climate campaign co-ordinator with the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition Sadhbh O' Neill said an ambitious Nature Restoration Law was essential to tackle the twin biodiversity and climate crises. 

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"Taking action to reduce carbon losses from drained peatlands and organic soils is also in line with the government policy as set out in the Climate Action Plan. Over 10 million tonnes of CO2 is released annually from these two sources, which should be a cause for alarm. Yet Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, and Sinn Féin MEPs are blocking the Nature Restoration Law before negotiations have even begun," she said.

The Nature Restoration Law is an opportunity to create a lasting framework and funding stream to restore ecosystems, including peatlands which are vital carbon sinks, she added.

According to the commission, some 81% of habitats across the EU are in poor status. The proposals aims to restore at least 20% of the EU’s land and sea areas by 2030, with all ecosystems restored by 2050.

At the UN's Cop15 global biodiversity summit last December in Canada, 196 countries and blocs agreed to restore at least 30% of degraded ecosystems by 2030.