B-R7: Nature Restoration Law vs. EU plan for critical raw materials - challenges to protect nature and food sovereignty

The European Greens have been spearheading policies to respond to climate
challenges while putting people and the planet at the top of its priorities. In
the European Parliament, at both national and local levels, EGP members have
been proposing measures to mitigate such impacts and to politically address
changes in production, distribution and consumption models to achieve more
balanced ways of using essential resources, ensuring less impact on nature and
human health.

For this reason, Greens all over Europe recognise the need to bring back nature
and restore those precious ecosystems which are under threat today. At the same
time, they are demanding
political action to reduce pollution, to ensure breathable air, clean water, and
toxic-free consumer goods while significantly reducing the risk of contamination
from pollutants and chemical contaminants and tackling climate challenges.

Nature Restoration Law

On 17 June 2024, nature protection was the subject of a very important
resolution approved by the EU national environment ministers. The Nature
Restoration Law (NRL) will contribute to the definition of binding goals for
national implementation in order to restore degraded ecosystems, stop the
extinction of species and promote healthy ecosystems. The NRL provides important
guidelines for restoring the health of fresh-water bodies while also improving
biodiversity in agricultural ecosystems with the aim of improving organic carbon
stock in cropland soils and promoting high-diversity landscapes.

Despite the urgent need for action, restoring nature has not been consensual,
largely because of the difficulty the EU faces in reconciling public interest
and environmental conservation with the pressure from and interests of the
energy sector, agro-business, super-intensive forestry and agricultural
production, the agrochemical sector and, most recently, mining industries.

Need for critical raw materials

The EU’s demand for critical materials – mainly to reduce its dependence on
China and to supply the electric vehicle industry – is forcing those European
countries with identified lithium deposits to respond to EU pressure to ensure
that at least 10% of such critical minerals are extracted in Europe by 2030.

Europe's green transition and digital transformation – associated with an
unsustainable model of overconsumption and overexploitation of raw materials –
are far removed from plans for the transition to place prevention and precaution
at the forefront of productive and technological solutions.

Portuguese and Serbian conflicts

The governments of Portugal and Serbia have seen this as an opportunity for
investment, in most cases creating a fast track for licensing and ignoring the
precautionary principle concerning the environmental impact of lithium mining,
while jeopardising national needs and goals regarding nature protection. In both
cases, governments have not gone any further with the projects thanks to strong
popular demonstrations and the persistence of civic movements and parties,
including Partido Ecologista “Os Verdes” in Portugal, which have put these
concerns on the political agenda.

Lithium mining industry, whose exploitation using open-pit models severely and
irreversibly impact soils, water quality and availability, resulting in massive
deforestation, soil destruction and increased carbon emissions, is far from
consensual in these countries.

Governments have opened the way for exploitation to be carried out on productive
farmlands, which is the case in Serbia´s Jadar Valley and in the Portuguese
region of Barroso.

In Portugal, these projects overlap with ecologically sensitive areas and are
close to protected and classified areas, such as Natura 2000 areas or the FAO’s
classified agricultural areas, thereby creating extreme impacts on the
landscape, the identity of rural regions, on food production and the economic
sustainability of communities. Lithium extraction - the aim of which is for use
in decarbonization solutions - is absolutely incompatible with regions suffering
from severe drought, water scarcity and devastating forest fires, such as
Portugal. Therefore, this option is not a solution to climate change in these
territories. On the contrary, it is a problem and will soon become a huge burden
for future generations, due to the
environmental liabilities it will leave behind.

In Serbia, populations fear that the lithium mine will pollute water sources and
endanger public health. After years of public protests, the Serbian government
recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the EU which is seen as the
first step in developing Serbia’s lithium resources.

Extraction and processing of lithium in the Jadar Valley, planned by the Rio
Tinto company, could significantly harm the environment, creating a devastating
impact on the surrounding areas of farmland, forest groundwater and soil,
leading to a loss of biodiversity and the accumulation of large amounts of
hazardous waste.

These political options have been guided by subservience towards an economic
imposition, conducting the energy transition without social and environmental
justice, mainly due to the failure to make exploration sites compatible with
areas of lower environmental and socio-economic impact.

We oppose both the EU’s and governments’ hasty granting of licences for lithium
extractive projects that reduce environmental criteria while exempting mining
companies from a thorough assessment of the environmental and socio-economic
impacts in extractive areas.

These regions cannot be sacrificed and made to give up their agricultural
livelihoods and, potentially, regional ecosystems. Thus, efforts must be made to
protect nature – particularly water resources, fertile soils and biodiversity –
as well as the food sovereignty of Member States.

The European Greens parties gathered in Dublin demand further and strengthened
actions on processes involving lithium exploration projects: