Legal provisions of COM(2020)652 - General Union Environment Action Programme to 2030 - Main contents

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dossier	COM(2020)652 - General Union Environment Action Programme to 2030.
document	COM(2020)652
date	April 6, 2022

Article 1

Subject matter

1. This Decision sets out a general action programme in the field of the environment for the period up to 31 December 2030 (the ‘8th Environment Action programme’ or ‘8th EAP’). It lays down the priority objectives of the 8th EAP and identifies the enabling conditions necessary to attain those priority objectives. It establishes a monitoring framework to measure the progress of the Union and its Member States towards the attainment of the priority objectives of the 8th EAP and a governance mechanism to ensure attainment of those priority objectives.

2. The 8th EAP aims to accelerate the green transition to a climate-neutral, sustainable, non-toxic, resource-efficient, renewable energy-based, resilient and competitive circular economy in a just, equitable and inclusive way, and to protect, restore and improve the state of the environment by, inter alia, halting and reversing biodiversity loss. It supports and strengthens an integrated policy and implementation approach, building upon the European Green Deal.

3. The 8th EAP forms the basis for achieving the environmental and climate objectives defined under the UN 2030 Agenda and its SDGs as well as for those pursued by multilateral environmental and climate agreements.

4. The monitoring framework of the 8th EAP shall contribute to the Union’s efforts to measure progress towards sustainability, well-being and resilience.

5. The 8th EAP shall be based on the precautionary principle, the principles of preventive action and of rectification of pollution at source and the polluter pays principle.

Article 2

Priority objectives

1. The 8th EAP shall have the long-term priority objective that by 2050 at the latest, people live well, within the planetary boundaries in a well-being economy where nothing is wasted, growth is regenerative, climate neutrality in the Union has been achieved and inequalities have been significantly reduced. A healthy environment underpins the well-being of all people and is an environment in which biodiversity is conserved, ecosystems thrive, and nature is protected and restored, leading to increased resilience to climate change, weather- and climate-related disasters and other environmental risks. The Union sets the pace for ensuring the prosperity of present and future generations globally, guided by intergenerational responsibility.

2. The 8th EAP shall have the following six interlinked thematic priority objectives for the period up to 31 December 2030:

(a)

swift and predictable reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and, at the same time, enhancement of removals by natural sinks in the Union to attain the 2030 greenhouse gas emission reduction target as laid down in Regulation (EU) 2021/1119, in line with the Union’s climate and environment objectives, whilst ensuring a just transition that leaves no one behind;

(b)

continuous progress in enhancing and mainstreaming adaptive capacity, including on the basis of ecosystem approaches, strengthening resilience and adaptation and reducing the vulnerability of the environment, society and all sectors of the economy to climate change, while improving prevention of, and preparedness for, weather- and climate-related disasters;

(c)	advancing towards a well-being economy that gives back to the planet more than it takes and accelerating the transition to a non-toxic circular economy, where growth is regenerative, resources are used efficiently and sustainably, and the waste hierarchy is applied;

(d)

pursuing zero pollution, including in relation to harmful chemicals, in order to achieve a toxic-free environment, including for air, water and soil, as well as in relation to light and noise pollution, and protecting the health and well-being of people, animals and ecosystems from environment-related risks and negative impacts;

(e)

protecting, preserving and restoring marine and terrestrial biodiversity and the biodiversity of inland waters inside and outside protected areas by, inter alia, halting and reversing biodiversity loss and improving the state of ecosystems and their functions and the services they provide, and by improving the state of the environment, in particular air, water and soil, as well as by combating desertification and soil degradation;

(f)

promoting environmental aspects of sustainability and significantly reducing key environmental and climate pressures related to the Union’s production and consumption, in particular in the areas of energy, industry, buildings and infrastructure, mobility, tourism, international trade and the food system.

Article 3

Enabling conditions to attain the priority objectives

(

The attainment of the priority objectives set out in Article 2 shall require the following from the Commission, Member States, regional and local authorities and stakeholders, as appropriate:

(a)

ensuring effective, swift and full implementation of Union legislation and strategies on the environment and the climate and striving for excellence in environmental performance at Union, national, regional and local levels, including by providing sufficient administrative and compliance assurance capacity, as laid out in the regular Environmental Implementation Review, supporting and cooperating with networks of practitioners, such as the European Union Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law, the European Network of Prosecutors for the Environment, the European Union Forum of Judges for the Environment and the European Network for Environmental Crime;

(b)

prioritising enforcement of Union environmental law where implementation is lacking, including through infringement proceedings, as well as by ensuring that sufficient financial and human resources are allocated for that purpose and that information on those proceedings is complete and easily accessible, while respecting Union law;

(c)

improving guidance and recommendations, including on effective, dissuasive and proportionate penalties to reduce risks of non-compliance with Union environmental law, as well as stepping up action in the area of environmental liability and responses to non-compliance, and strengthening judicial cooperation in the area of, and law enforcement against, environmental crime as laid down in relevant Union legislation, such as Directive 2008/99/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (13);

(d)

strengthening the integrated approach to policy development and implementation, in particular by:

(i)

mainstreaming the priority objectives set out in Article 2, as well as, where relevant, the SDGs, in all relevant strategies, legislative and non-legislative initiatives, programmes, investments and projects at Union, national, regional and local levels, as well as in relevant international agreements concluded by the Union after 2 May 2022, in order to ensure that those strategies, legislative and non-legislative initiatives, programmes, investments, projects and international agreements and their implementation are consistent with, contribute where relevant, and do no harm to any of the priority objectives set out in Article 2;

(ii)	maximising the benefits from implementing the Directives 2011/92/EU (14) and 2001/42/EC (15) of the European Parliament and of the Council;

(iii)

systematically screening and, where appropriate, assessing synergies and potential trade-offs between environmental, social and economic objectives for all initiatives, so as to ensure that people’s well-being, and in particular their need for a healthy environment, clean air and affordable, accessible and high-quality food, water, energy, housing, green infrastructure and mobility are met in a sustainable way that leaves no one behind;

(iv)	adopting a ‘Think Sustainability First’ approach, including by integrating, where relevant, the SDGs in the ‘better regulation’ guidelines and the ‘better regulation’ toolbox, as well as streamlining and operationalising the ‘do no harm’ principle;

(v)

regularly evaluating existing policies and, where appropriate, proposing new legislation, based on, where relevant, impact assessments that build upon wide and transparent consultations – following procedures that are accountable, inclusive, informed and simple to implement – and that take into account the full range of immediate and long-term impacts on the environment and climate as part of an integrated analysis of economic, social and environmental impacts, including their cumulative effects, as well as the costs of action and inaction;

(vi)	presenting, within 8 weeks of closure of a public consultation by the Commission, detailed feedback on stakeholder consultation responses, distinguishing between contributions from different types of stakeholders;

(e)

developing a summary dashboard and indicator set measuring ‘beyond GDP’, based on, inter alia, a targeted consultation with all relevant stakeholders as well as a report which identifies the interlinkages between existing indicator sets, monitoring frameworks and processes at Union level measuring social, economic and environmental progress and which proposes action on how existing dashboards and indicator sets can be streamlined;

(f)	ensuring that social inequalities resulting from climate- and environmental-related impacts and policies are minimised and that measures taken to protect the environment and climate are carried out in a socially fair and inclusive way;

(g)	gender mainstreaming throughout climate and environmental policies, including by incorporating a gender perspective at all stages of the policy-making process;

(h)

strengthening environmentally positive incentives as well as phasing out environmentally harmful subsidies, in particular fossil fuel subsidies, at Union, national, regional and local level, without delay, inter alia, by:

(i)	a binding Union framework to monitor and report on Member States’ progress towards phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, based on an agreed methodology;

(ii)	setting a deadline for the phasing out of fossil fuel subsidies consistent with the ambition of limiting global warming to 1,5 °C;

(iii)

a methodology that is set out by the Commission, in consultation with Member States, by 2023, to identify other environmentally harmful subsidies; on the basis of that methodology Member States shall identify other environmentally harmful subsidies and report them regularly to the Commission, allowing for a Commission report on the level and type of such subsidies in the Union, and on progress made on phasing them out;

(i)

mainstreaming biodiversity action in the Union’s policies and contributing to the achievement of the overall ambition of providing 7,5 % of annual spending under the multiannual financial framework 2021-2027 to biodiversity objectives in 2024 and 10 % of that annual spending in 2026 and in 2027, with such spending to be tracked using an effective, transparent and comprehensive methodology, while considering the existing overlaps between climate and biodiversity goals;

(j)	ensuring effective climate and biodiversity mainstreaming and proofing of the Union budget as well as consistency between climate and biodiversity funding;

(k)	promoting the sound management of chemicals at international level, whilst also promoting the global phase-down of substances which are not authorised in the Union;

(l)

swiftly substituting substances of concern, including substances of very high concern, endocrine disruptors, very persistent chemicals, neurotoxicants and immuno-toxicants, as well as tackling the combination effects of chemicals, nano-forms of substances and exposure to hazardous chemicals from products, assessing their impacts on health and the environment, including climate, and biodiversity, whilst promoting safe and sustainable by-design chemicals and materials and stepping up and coordinating efforts to promote the development and validation of alternatives to animal testing;

(m)	addressing land degradation and ensuring the protection and sustainable use of soil, including by way of a dedicated legislative proposal on soil health by 2023;

(n)	transforming the Union’s food system, so that, inter alia, it contributes to protecting and restoring biodiversity within and outside the Union and ensures a high level of animal welfare, whilst ensuring a just transition for affected stakeholders;

(o)	holistically recognising the interconnections between human health, animal health and the environment through integration of the One Health approach in policy making;

(p)	advancing towards the recognition of a right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment internationally;

(q)

making full use of ecosystem approaches and green infrastructure, including biodiversity-friendly nature based solutions, whilst also ensuring that their implementation restores biodiversity and enhances ecosystem integrity and connectivity, has clear societal co-benefits, requiring full engagement with, and consent of, indigenous peoples and local communities, and does not replace or undermine measures taken to protect biodiversity or reduce greenhouse gas emissions within the Union;

(r)	making use of existing tools and methodologies as well as further improving monitoring methods, evaluation tools and measurable indicators for nature-based solutions;

(s)	significantly decreasing the Union’s material and consumption footprints to bring them into planetary boundaries as soon as possible, including through the introduction of Union 2030 reduction targets, as appropriate;

(t)	effectively integrating the SDGs as well as climate and environmental objectives in the European Semester of economic governance, without prejudice to its original purpose, including in the National Reform Programmes and national recovery and resilience plans;

(u)	mobilising resources and ensuring sufficient sustainable investments from public and private sources, including of funds and instruments available under the Union budget, via the European Investment Bank and at national level, consistent with the Union’s sustainable finance policy agenda;

(v)

making the best use of environmental taxation, market-based instruments and green budgeting and financing tools, including those required to ensure a socially fair transition, and supporting businesses and other stakeholders in developing and applying standardised natural capital accounting practices;

(w)

ensuring that environment policies and action at Union, national, regional and local level are based on the best available scientific knowledge and technologies, and strengthening the environmental knowledge base, including indigenous and local knowledge, and its uptake, including through research, innovation, fostering green skills, training and retraining, and further building up environmental and ecosystem accounting;

(x)	developing and consolidating the knowledge base, inter alia, on the requirements for systemic change, how to shift from a silo- and sector-based policy focus to a systemic approach to policy coherence, as well as the capacity of different ecosystems to act as greenhouse gas sinks and stocks;

(y)

harnessing the potential of digital and data technologies to support environment policy, including by delivering real-time data where possible and information on the state of ecosystems, while increasing efforts to minimise the environmental footprint of these technologies, and ensuring transparency, authenticity, interoperability and public accessibility of the data and information;

(z)

closing gaps in, and optimising, relevant indicator sets, such as those relating to systemic change, planetary boundaries and the Union’s production and consumption footprints, as well as those that address the interface between environmental and socioeconomic factors, such as inequalities arising from environmental change, whilst ensuring that indicator sets are comparable at all levels of policy-making;

(aa)	mobilising broad support by civil society, working with businesses, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises, social partners, citizens, communities and other stakeholders;

(ab)

raising awareness about the importance of achieving the priority objectives set out in Article 2, as well as strengthening the capacity of citizens to act through promoting, inter alia, debate and communication at all levels, lifelong environmental education, civic involvement and community-led action;

(ac)

contributing to supporting civil society, public authorities, citizens and communities, social partners and the private sector in identifying climate and environmental risks, in assessing their impact and in taking action to prevent, mitigate and adapt to, such risks, as well as fostering their engagement in closing knowledge gaps by, inter alia, encouraging citizen observation and reporting of environmental issues and compliance gaps, including promotion of good practices of citizen science using digital technologies;

(ad)

encouraging cooperation in the development and implementation of strategies, policies or legislation related to the 8th EAP and ensuring the full participation of regional and local authorities in urban and rural areas, including in outermost regions, across all dimensions of environmental policy-making through a collaborative and multi-level approach and ensuring that regional and local communities have adequate resources for implementation on the ground;

(ae)	strengthening cooperation between all Union institutions on climate and environment policy, including between the Commission and the Committee of the Regions in the framework of their enhanced cooperation, and exploring how to improve dialogue and information pooling;

(af)	effectively applying high standards of transparency, public participation and access to justice in accordance with the Aarhus Convention both at Union and Member State level;

(ag)	making the data and evidence linked to the implementation of the 8th EAP publicly available, easily accessible and comprehensible, without prejudice to provisions on confidentiality in domain-specific legislation;

(ah)

supporting the global uptake of the priority objectives set out in Article 2, ensuring coherence between internal and external approaches and coordinated action, in particular as regards:

(i)

engaging with third countries on climate and environmental action, encouraging and supporting them to adopt and implement rules in those areas that are at least as ambitious as those of the Union, and ensuring that all products placed on the Union market fully comply with relevant Union requirements in line with the Union’s international commitments, including with regard to halting deforestation and land degradation;

(ii)	fostering sustainable corporate governance, including establishing mandatory due diligence requirements at Union level, and promoting the uptake of responsible business conduct in Union external policies, including in trade policy;

(iii)

enhancing cooperation with governments, businesses, social partners and civil society in third countries and international organisations to form partnerships and alliances for environment and climate protection, and promoting cooperation on environment and climate change, including in G7 and G20;

(iv)

demonstrating leadership in international fora by, inter alia, achievement of the SDGs by the Union as well as of the objectives laid down in the Paris Agreement, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Convention to Combat Desertification and other multilateral environmental agreements, notably by strengthening their implementation, and supporting third countries to do the same, including by increasing transparency and accountability as regards progress on the commitments made under those agreements;

(v)	strengthening international environmental governance by closing remaining gaps and strengthening respect for, and application of, recognised international environmental principles;

(vi)	ensuring that the Union and the Member States’ financial assistance to third countries promotes the UN 2030 Agenda.

Article 4

Monitoring framework and governance

1. The Commission, supported by the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), without prejudice to their independence, shall monitor, assess and report on the progress of the Union and the Member States with regard to attaining the priority objectives set out in Article 2, on an annual basis, taking into consideration the enabling conditions laid down in Article 3 and the overall goal of achieving systemic change. The information that results from that monitoring, assessment and reporting shall be made publicly available and easily accessible.

2. The monitoring, assessment and reporting referred to in paragraph 1 shall aim to facilitate high-level strategic political communication. Following a consultation process with all relevant stakeholders, the Commission shall, by 2 May 2022, present a monitoring framework, based on a limited number of headline indicators, which include, where available, systemic indicators that address, inter alia, environmental-social and environmental-economic nexus. The list of headline indicators shall remain stable to ensure accountability. It shall, however, be updated to reflect the latest policy and indicator developments, where appropriate.

3. The monitoring and assessment referred to in paragraph 1 shall reflect the latest developments as regards the availability and relevance of data and indicators and shall build on data available in the Member States and at the Union level, in particular data and indicators produced by the EEA and the European Statistical System, with a view to minimising administrative burden. It shall be coherent with, and without prejudice to, other monitoring, reporting and governance frameworks and exercises covering environment and climate policy. It shall be based on a methodology that enables, where possible, measurement of distance to targets in relation to the priority objectives set out in Article 2 and selected headline indicators.

4. The European Parliament, the Council and the Commission shall take account of, and exchange views annually on, the assessment referred to in paragraph 1 as well as actions taken and possible future actions.

5. The EEA and the ECHA shall support the Commission to improve the availability and relevance of data, indicators and knowledge, in particular by carrying out the following:

(a)	gathering, processing and reporting data and evidence with modern digital tools, whilst improving methodologies for data collection and treatment and for developing harmonised indicators;

(b)	strengthening and providing support to basic research, mapping and monitoring;

(c)	working towards closing the relevant monitoring data gaps, together with Member States and taking into account the need for systemic change;

(d)	delivering policy-relevant and systemic analyses, and contributing to implementing policy objectives at Union and national level, including by proposing recommendations to enhance the progress to attain the objectives;

(e)	integrating data on environmental, health, social and economic impacts, and exploiting fully other available data and services, such as those delivered by Copernicus;

(f)	contributing to closing critical knowledge gaps on ecological tipping points, while taking into account geographical and ecological differences across regions;

(g)	developing quantitative and qualitative tools, including foresight and models, which could provide, inter alia, information on potential future system-wide impacts of policies related to environment and climate and on ‘distance to targets’;

(h)	further improving availability and interoperability of, and access to, data through Union programmes;

(i)	ensuring transparency and accountability.

6. The Commission shall regularly examine data and knowledge needs at Union and national level, including the capacity of the EEA and the ECHA as well as of other European bodies and agencies, where relevant, to carry out the tasks referred to in paragraph 5.

Article 5

Mid-term review

1. By 31 March 2024, the Commission shall carry out a mid-term review of the progress achieved in attaining the thematic priority objectives set out in Article 2(2), taking into consideration the status of the enabling conditions laid down in Article 3, and the progress made towards monitoring and assessing systemic change. The Commission shall propose, where appropriate, changes to the headline indicators referred to in Article 4(2) in light of the outcome of the mid-term review. The mid-term review shall be based on the assessments carried out pursuant to Article 4(1) and on any other relevant findings. The Commission shall submit a report on the mid-term review to the European Parliament and to the Council.

2. In light of the mid-term review referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article, of the possible responses of the European Parliament and the Council to that review, of other relevant policy developments and of the latest report from the European Environment Agency on the state and outlook of the European environment, in order to attain the thematic priority objectives set out in Article 2(2), the Commission shall present, where appropriate, a legislative proposal to add an annex to the 8th EAP, for the period after 2025, containing a list of actions with a view to reaching those objectives, as well as a timeline for the respective actions.

Article 6

Evaluation

By 31 March 2029, the Commission shall carry out an evaluation of the 8th EAP. The Commission shall submit a report containing the main findings of that evaluation to the European Parliament and to the Council, followed, if appropriate, by a legislative proposal for the next environmental action programme by 31 December 2029.

Article 7

Entry into force

This Decision shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.