Uniting for Climate Action: European Stakeholders Join Forces to Address DNSH Principle Challenges
Representatives from various European organizations recently convened for a meeting with Ms. Zita Herman, an advisor to the Green Group in the European Parliament, to discuss the implementation of the of the Do No Significant Harm (DNSH) principle in EU-funded climate projects
During the meeting, participants from Slovenia, Poland, Hungary, and Romania shared examples to highlight the challenges faced in upholding the DNSH principle across different contexts, such as road construction, flood protection measures, and energy diversification.
The attendees emphasised the inconsistencies in applying the DNSH principle between the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) and Cohesion Funds, with the latter having less stringent criteria. Ms. Zita Herman encouraged stakeholders to provide concrete examples of projects that do not comply with the DNSH principle, stressing the need for consistent standards to be upheld in the RRF and Cohesion policy.
The discussion also raised concerns about the use of EU funding for gas and oil subsidies in energy diversification in the Visegrad countries, which appears to contradict the EU's sustainability objectives. Ms. Herman explained that this compromise was made to prevent the spread of nuclear energy across the bloc. The meeting also touched upon the limitations of project-level Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) and the need for more effective criteria for fund disbursement.
In light of the discussion, the participants reached a consensus to maintain an ongoing dialogue on the DNSH principle and its application in various projects and funding mechanisms. The objective is to involve MEPs in addressing concerns and advocating for more rigorous adherence to the DNSH principle in EU-funded projects. Future meetings will be scheduled to assess progress and explore new developments related to the DNSH principle and EU funding. Additionally, stakeholders will closely monitor future initiatives and reports from the European Commission on biodiversity targets and gas use in the Visegrad countries.
Attendees included Aleksandra Khirv from CEEWEB (Hungary), András Lukács from the Clean Air Action Group (Hungary), Ariana Apine from Green Liberty (Latvia), Ewa Swierkula and Wojciech Szymalski from the Institute for Sustainable Development (Poland), Zoltan Hajdu from Focus Ecocenter (Romania), Jonas Sonnenschein from Umanotera (Slovenia), Luke Haywood, and Giovanni Dettori from the European Environmental Bureau.
This project is part of the European Climate Initiative (EUKI). EUKI is a project financing instrument by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK). The EUKI competition for project ideas is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. It is the overarching goal of the EUKI to foster climate cooperation within the European Union (EU) in order to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.
