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One year after 86 municipalities committed to the so-called Nature Pact, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development presented first results at a press conference on Monday.
The Pact introduced subsidies to incentivise municipalities to invest into the protection of natural habitats and to increase biodiversity within their territories. Minister Welfring expressed satisfaction at the progress achieved in a year thanks to the agreement, which was launched by her predecessor Carole Dieschbourg.
86 of the 102 municipalities in the country signed the Pact, the majority of which are still working on outlining their course of action. Twelve municipalities are currently completing the audit, while a further eight have already been certified. Three towns received more than half of the 233 points and are therefore expected to receive certification.
Minister Welfring was confident that the remaining 16 municipalities can also be convinced to sign the Nature Pact. She stated: "We already experienced with the Climate Pact that inactive municipalities become more motivated once the first towns are officially and visibly certified. So, we are very confident that we will get the remaining ones on board. With the Climate Pact, the evolution occurred over a couple of years. Today, we see that the concept has prevailed and that municipalities like cooperating."
The Greens politician also launched a call for projects to turn more of the country's urban areas green. The goal of the initiative is not to restructure existing green areas, but rather revitalise sealed surfaces.
Municipalities have until 15 March 2023 to file draft projects . A jury, which has yet to be named, is scheduled to evaluate the proposals by May 2023. The selected projects will then have one year to finalise planning before development can begin as of June 2024. According to Minister Welfring, both rural and urban towns will have equal chances of coming up with successful ideas.
The government will cover 90% of the costs needed to develop the projects and has reserved €2 million, taken from the Energy and Climate Fund, for that purpose. Costs of individual projects may not exceed €500,000.
PDF: Presentation by the Ministry for the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development (FR)
