Eamon Ryan made an impassioned plea to his European counterparts to protect 'our incredible natural world' and support the Nature Restoration Law in Luxembourg.
He spoke before environment ministers from EU member states reached a deal on the 'general approach' to Europe's Nature Restoration Law at the Environment Council.
The proposal aims to restore ecosystems, habitats and species across the EU lands and seas and asks all member states to set restoration measures that cover at least 20% of those areas by 2030 with a view to restoring all ecosystems that need it by 2050.
Read more: Nature Restoration Law: 'No one going to steal farmers' land' says Irish MEP
Ireland voted in favour of Nature Restoration Law at the EU Council meeting.
The 'general approach' provides a mandate for negotiations with the European Parliament on the final shape of the legislation according to the EC.
Ministers Eamon Ryan and Malcolm Noonan attended the meeting in Luxembourg last week.
Minister Ryan gave an impassioned speech outlining how countries agreed to protect 30% of land and seas at COP15 on Biodiversity in Montreal in December.
He said: "We have to make sure we deliver by bringing it home here in Europe - in our most beautiful continent.
"If we don't allow nature to restore it will not help us in the climate challenge we face.
"In the waters to the west of Ireland these days, the average temperatures are now five degrees above what it was when I was growing up.
"As a young boy I would fishing in Dublin Bay and Wicklow and you'd get fish this size [he said holding out his arms] without even trying. Today you struggle to find one this size [he showed using just his fingers].
"As I child I was taught that if we didn't change our ways we would lose half the natural world and that's exactly what's happened over the last four decades and we have to turn around for our own health, for our own wealth, for our own prosperity but more important than anything else, a sense of identity, a sense of purpose, a sense of connection to this incredible natural world that we have the great joy to live within.
"The mechanisms in the law provide real flexibility," he added.
"Indeed these national plans are going to be complex and difficult and also the difficult compromises in renewable energy. We're going to have to both engage with the environmental issues and the climate issues... but nothing in this text blocks any country in being able to achieve the optimisation we need to achieve our development of our economy, society but also the natural world.
"We will have to pay our farmers and foresters and ecologists to deliver the service - it won't be done on its own but I believe each of us can look at and we can hopefully work collectively to devise a mechanism for that.
"We don't have to agree that all here today but we need to send a signal to our people that there is hope, that destruction of nature is not an inevitable certainty - that we can collectively co-ordinate to help bring it back, providing a more secure future for all of us at home."
Tweeting after the meting, Eamon Ryan said: "Good news, a general approach to the Nature Restoration Law has just been agreed at the Environment Council. If it can now be supported in the European Parliament we can enter into further negotiations and get the law in place before the end of the year."
Ireland's Minister overseeing biodiversity and nature, Malcolm Noonan, said: "Deal! We have a agreement on the Nature Restoration Regulation at the EU Council. General Approach agreed."
He later added: "Today is a great day for nature. I believe that the text agreed here in Luxembourg this morning is a balanced and positive one that will benefit nature and people right across Ireland.
"The Irish Government has worked collaboratively at the national level and with its partners in Europe to ensure that the EU Council’s proposal is ambitious and implementable. It will see increased investment in rural Ireland through voluntary and well-resourced schemes, while also bringing back wildlife and restoring wild places so that they can continue to provide us with the many ecosystem services that we depend on.
"The proposed Nature Restoration Regulation brings with it an overarching restoration objective for the long-term recovery of nature in the EU’s land and sea areas with binding restoration targets for specific habitats and species. Nature is our lifeline and it’s vital that we restore it."
Opposition to the Nature Restoration Law sparked controversy in recent weeks after the European People’s Party, which includes Fine Gael, walked out of talks.
Votes on the legislation have been tight, but there is still a chance it can pass.
"Protecting nature is protecting the economy" says Fine Gael MEP Frances Fitzgerald.
The Dublin politician says there is “so much work to do to protect nature”.
“We are going to have a series of votes here over the next period and I want to do everything possible to make sure that law is absolutely as good as it can be for everyone - urban, rural, farmers, businesses, consumers,” she added on Monday.
“We’re all in this together because protecting nature is protecting the economy.”
The vital legislation, which will provide countries with a blue print, to help restore, rebuild and conserve nature comes at a time when most EU habitats are in poor or bad condition.
With species declining at an alarming rate, conservationists believe time is running out to turn the ship around.
We asked Fine Gael for a comment on whether all their MEPs will support the law. A spokesperson for Sean Kelly, MEP, said: "The delegation has not decided yet as the text for plenary vote is yet to be finalised."
The next European Parliament vote on the Law is due on June 27, its Committee on the Environment resumes its vote to decide the committee's position. No Fine Gael MEPs are full members of that committee and therefore don't have a vote on it.
Fine Gael MEPs will have the opportunity to vote on the legislation when it gets to plenary level to adopt the Parliament's mandate for negotiations – which could happen in July or September.
