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European Green Deal: More sustainable use of plant and soil natural resources

Jul 5, 2023 , , , ,

Brussels, 5 July 2023

Today, the Commission adopted a package of measures for a sustainable use of key natural resources, which will also strengthen the resilience of EU food systems and farming.

A soil monitoring law will put the EU on a pathway to healthy soils by 2050, by gathering data on the health of soils and making it available to farmers and other soil managers. The law also makes sustainable soil management the norm and addresses situations of unacceptable health and environment risks due to soil contamination. Today’s proposals will also boost innovation and sustainability, by enabling the safe use of technical progress in new genomic techniques, to enable developing climate-resilient crops and reducing the use of chemical pesticides, and by ensuring more sustainable, high-quality and diverse seeds and reproductive material for plants and forests. Finally, new measures also propose to reduce food and textile waste, which will contribute to a more efficient use of natural resources and a further reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from these sectors.

These measures will bring long-term economic, social, health and environmental benefits to everyone. By ensuring more resilient natural assets, the new rules in particular support people living directly from land and nature. They will contribute to prosperous rural areas, food security, a resilient and thriving bioeconomy, put the EU at the forefront of innovation and development and help reverse biodiversity loss and prepare for the consequences of climate change.

A new EU Law to increase the value of soil and its resources

60 to 70% of soils in the EU are currently unhealthy. In addition, a billion tonnes of soil are washed away every year due to erosion, which means that the remaining fertile top layer is disappearing quickly. Costs associated with soil degradation are estimated at over €50 billion per year.

The proposal for the first-ever EU legislation on soils provides a harmonised definition of soil health, puts in place a comprehensive and coherent monitoring framework and fosters sustainable soil management and remediation of contaminated sites. The proposal brings several sources of soil data under one roof, combining soil sampling data from the EU’s Land Use and Coverage Area frame Survey (LUCAS) with satellite data from Copernicus, and national and private data. The ultimate goal is to achieve healthy EU soils by 2050, in line with the EU Zero Pollution ambition.

Soil data will support innovation, technological and organisational solutions, notably in farming practices. It will help farmers and other landowners implement the most appropriate treatment methods and help them increase soil fertility and yields, while minimising water and nutrient consumption. In addition, this data will improve our understanding of trends on droughts, water retention and erosion, strengthening disaster prevention and management. Healthy soils and better data provide additional income opportunities for farmers and land managers, who can be rewarded for carbon farming, receive payments for ecosystem services or for increasing the value of healthy soils and food produced on them. The proposal does not impose any direct obligations on landowners and land managers including farmers.

Member States will define positive and negative practices for soil management. They will also define regeneration measures to bring degraded soils back to a healthy condition, based on national soil health assessments. These assessments will also inform into other EU policies, such as LULUCF, CAP and water management.

The proposal also requests that Member States address unacceptable risks for human health and the environment due to soil contamination, guided by the polluter pays principle. Member States will need to identify, investigate, assess and clean up contaminated sites.

More resilient food systems with New Genomic Techniques

Farmers and breeders need access to state of the art innovation. New technologies can help boost resilience for both agriculture and forested land and protect harvests from the effects of climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental degradation. New Genomic Techniques (NGT) are innovative tools that help increase the sustainability and resilience of our food system. They allow developing improved plant varieties that are climate resilient, pest resistant, that require less fertilisers and pesticides and can ensure higher yields, helping to cut the use and risk of chemical pesticides in half, and reducing the EUs dependency on agricultural imports.

In most cases, these new techniques lead to more targeted, precise, and faster changes than conventional techniques, while growing a crop that is the same as what could have been achieved with classic techniques like seed selection and crossbreeding.

Our proposal will:

  • establish two categories of plants obtained by NGTs: NGT plants comparable to naturally occurring or conventional plants, and NGT plants with more complex modifications;
  • both categories will be subject to different requirements to reach the market taking into account their different characteristics and risk profiles. The plants from the first category will need to be notified. The plants from the second category will go through the more extensive process of the GMO directive;
  • give incentives to steer the development of plants towards more sustainability;
  • ensure transparency about all NGT plants on the EU market (for e.g., through labelling of seeds);
  • offer robust monitoring of economic, environmental and social impacts of NGT products.
More sustainable and diverse Plant and Forest Reproductive Materials

The European seed sector is the largest exporter in the global seed market (20% of the global market with an estimated value of €7-10 billion and 7,000 companies mostly SMEs). It is important that the legislation is up to speed with the evolution of science. This proposal will update and simplify the current rules, some of which are more than 50-years old.

The proposed Regulation on the production and marketing of plant and forest reproductive materials will increase the diversity and quality of seeds, cuttings, and other plant reproductive material (PRM). They will guarantee stable yields by future-proofing plant varieties through sustainability testing (e.g., disease resistance). Seeds will also be better adapted to the pressures of climate change and help preserve the genetic diversity of cultivated crops and contribute to ensuring food security. The proposal will cut red tape and increase efficiency and efficacy of the registration and certification systems.

For the Forest reproductive materials, we will help ensure that the right tree is planted at the right place so that forests are better adapted to climate change. Tree breeding allows speeding up climate change adaptation of forests, thus ensuring their continued productivity in the future.

Reducing food and textile waste

Nearly 59 million tonnes of food (131 kg/inhabitant) are wasted in the EU each year with estimated market value of €132 billion. Over half of food waste (53%) is generated by households, followed by the processing and manufacturing sector (20%). Fighting food waste is a triple win: it saves food for human consumption and thereby contributes to food security. It helps companies and consumers to save money, and it lowers the environmental impact of food production and consumption.

To accelerate the EU’s progress, the Commission proposes that, by 2030, Member States reduce food waste by 10%, in processing and manufacturing, and by 30% (per capita), jointly at retail and consumption (restaurants, food services and households).

Textile waste also burdens limited natural resources. Around 78% of the textiles waste is not separately collected by consumers and ends up in mixed household waste, destined to be incinerated or landfilled. More information on today’s proposal is in a dedicated press release.

Next steps

The proposals will now be discussed by the European Parliament and the Council in the ordinary legislative procedure.

Background

The European Green Deal is a must for the health of our people and planet. Since its presentation in December 2019, it has set in motion a deep and holistic transformation of our society and our economy. Today’s package completes the previous proposals under the ‘natural resources’ pillar of the Green Deal.

These initiatives and their targets rely on solutions provided by nature as our best ally in the fight against climate change. To deliver on climate neutrality, in particular to enhance carbon removals by natural sinks, deliver on the EU Climate Law and uphold the European Union’s international commitments under both the Paris Agreement and the Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Framework, we must urgently strengthen the resilience of natural ecosystems across the EU, increase their ability to help us adapt to climate change and maintain their productive capacity to ensure lasting food and material security.

For More Information

Communication on Sustainable Use of Natural Resources

New Genomic Techniques proposal

Questions and Answers on New Genomic Techniques

Factsheet on New Genomic Techniques

Animation on New Genomic Techniques

Plant and Forest Reproductive Material proposal

Questions and Answers on Plant and Forest Reproductive Material

Factsheet on Plant and Forest Reproductive Material

Food Waste proposal

Questions and Answers on Food Waste

Factsheet on Food Waste

Proposal on Soil

Questions and Answers on Soil

Factsheet on Soil

Animation on Soil

Proposal on Textile Waste

Press release on Textile Waste

Factsheet on Textile Waste

Quotes

Almost two years ago, we presented Fit for 55 to implement the climate pillar of the Green Deal. Today, we complement our earlier proposals on nature restoration and the reduction of chemical pesticides, to underpin the nature pillar of the Green Deal. These proposals are closely linked to each other and to the need for climate action: healthy soils absorb more carbon, retain more water and protect from droughts. And by enabling the safe use of new genomic techniques, farmers will have access to more resilient crops that require less pesticides.

Frans Timmermans, Executive Vice-President for the European Green Deal – 05/07/2023

Innovation is part and parcel of our Green Deal sustainability agenda, particularly in the area of food. We want to give our farmers the tools to produce healthy and safe food, adapted to our changing climatic conditions, and with respect for our planet. This includes new rules on the use of new genomic techniques and modernised rules on plants and forest seeds to boost diversity, sustainable practices, food security and drive EU competitiveness. We are also today stepping up our action against food waste to minimise food losses and reinforce our food security. We have an opportunity now to plan for the future, redesign the way we produce and consume our food and offer a larger choice of safe, sustainable and nutritious products to our citizens. This is also an opportunity for the EU farming sector and the food industry to take the lead on making sustainability their bankable trademark and stay ahead of the curve globally.

Stella Kyriakides, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety – 05/07/2023

Today we build the European Green Deal from the ground up! Literally. Our proposal, that will result in the first ever European law on soils, will boost Europe’s resilience and ensure a viable future for our farmers, landowners and people. In a nutshell, it legally defines healthy soils and allow us gather data on the state of soils, make a sustainable soil management the norm and very importantly help decontaminate polluted soils. Investing in our soils means putting the right foundation for everything else we build on.

Virginijus Sinkevičius, Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries – 05/07/2023
Source – EU Commission

Q&A: Directive on Soil Monitoring and Resilience

 

Brussels, 5 July 2023

Why do we need EU legislation on soils now?

Over 60% of European soils are unhealthy and scientific evidence shows that this is getting even worse. Unsustainable use of EU natural resources, in particular the degradation and pollution of soils, is one of the major drivers of the climate and biodiversity crises. In particular, soil degradation has already cost billions of euro – an estimated over €50 billion per year due to the loss of essential services they provide.

This degradation is mainly driven by unsustainable management of land, sealing, contamination and overexploitation combined with impact from climate change and extreme weather events.

Degraded soils reduce the provision of ecosystem services such as food, feed, fibre, timber, nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, pest control or water regulation. Moreover, degraded soils intensify the pressure on the remaining healthy soils. All this comes at a cost to farmers, and affects the capacity to produce healthy and nutritious food. Reversing the trend is urgent in order to prevent and better respond to natural disasters and droughts, to achieve EU agreed goals on climate and biodiversity, to ensure food security and safety, and to protect the health of citizens.

Soils currently do not receive the same level of legal protection in the EU as air and water. The European Parliament, other EU institutions, stakeholders and citizens have therefore called on the Commission to develop an EU legal framework for the protection and sustainable use of soil. In response, the EU Soil Strategy for 2030 announced that the Commission would table a legislative proposal in 2023 to achieve the vision that by 2050 all soil ecosystems should be in healthy condition.

How will this proposal improve soil health?

The ultimate objective of the proposed law is to have all soils in healthy condition by 2050, in line with the EU Zero Pollution ambition. To achieve this, the law provides a harmonised definition of soil health, puts in place a comprehensive and coherent monitoring framework and lays down rules on sustainable soil management and remediation of contaminated sites.

Supported by the Commission, Member States will first monitor and then assessment the health of all soils in their territory, so that appropriate measures can be taken by authorities as well as landowners. The collected data will feed into the deployment of technological and organisational solutions to manage soils, in particular in farming practices, including crop diversification, precision farming, plant development, digitised soil management tools and others. This will enable farmers and other landowners to implement the most appropriate treatment methods and will assist them in maintaining and increasing soil fertility and yields, while minimising water and nutrient consumption. In addition, soil data allows an enhanced analysis of trends on droughts, water retention and erosion, enhancing disaster prevention and management.

High-quality data on soils will increase the uptake, large-scale development and success of new sustainable business models such as carbon farming and will ultimately help improving the state of forests.

Sustainable soil management will become the norm in the EU. Member States will have to define positive and negative practices of soil management. Regeneration measures, to bring degraded soils back to a healthy condition, should also be defined and implemented, based on Member States’ soil health assessments. Such an assessment will also serve the development and implementation of other EU policies and related plans and programmes, such as LULUCF, CAP and water management.

There are an estimated 2.8 million potentially contaminated sites in the EU. To tackle this legacy from past polluting activities, the proposal requests Member States to identify all potentially contaminated sites and map them transparently in a public register, investigate these sites and address unacceptable risks for human health and the environment, thereby contributing to a toxic-free environment by 2050. The remediation shall be done in line with the ‘polluter pays’ principle, so that the costs are borne by the ones responsible for the contamination.

Who will benefit from healthier soil and how?

Ensuring the sustainable use of soils and their regeneration will help strengthen the resilience of European food and farming. Improving soil health is also essential for disaster prevention and management. This is ever more important as climate-induced extreme weather events, such as droughts, floods, wildfires are becoming a more frequent reality in Europe. Depollution and decontamination of soils will also greatly improve the health of citizens, especially of vulnerable groups, who are proven to be disproportionally affected by pollution.

The proposal will reduce the costs from soil degradation and of the decreased provision of ecosystem services caused by it. This cost, conservatively estimated at around €50 billion per year, is currently borne by the wider society, and especially by farmers and other land owners.

Farmers will benefit because their livelihoods and future depend on the long-term health of the soils on which crops are growing and livestock is grazing. 95% of our food is directly or indirectly produced on soils. Soil erosion can cause a yearly agricultural productivity loss of €1.25 billion per year in the EU.

The increased uptake of sustainable management practices will maintain or improve soil fertility, productivity and yields, and can reduce costs through the increased availability of ecosystem services and need for less inputs. Some examples of specific benefits include:

  • Improved monitoring, development of remote sensing solutions and enhanced data collection will render a more granular view on the state of their soils
  • Independent advisors can help farmers implement sustainable soil management practices based on more and better data and knowledge
  • Certification of soil health can bring better recognition of the best practices carried out by farmers, as they can be financially rewarded for keeping the soil in good condition
  • Farmers will have more access to innovation, funding, data, knowledge, advice and training, notably via the Horizon Europe’s Mission “A Soil Deal for Europe”.

The Soil Monitoring Law will in addition generate new business, innovation and job opportunities in sectors such as advisory services, training, certification, environmental consultancy and soil testing. It will support industries as they develop soil-friendly and climate neutral value chains.

Investigating and cleaning up brownfields will allow to build new infrastructure without consuming new land, applying a circular approach to this limited resource.

The law will also improve our knowledge on soils since soil health will be monitored everywhere in Europe, thereby generating updated and solid new data.

How will the law affect farmers?

The proposal includes elements to increase the knowledge and data availability on the health of soils, including agricultural soils, and to maintain or improve soil functions, including the production of food, feed and biomass. The proposal does not impose any direct obligations on landowners and land managers, including farmers.

Member States must define sustainable soil management and regeneration measures with a view to achieve healthy soils in the EU by 2050. The proposal only sets out certain principles to be respected when defining those measures at Member State level but does not define specific management practices to be applied or banned. These should be adapted at national level by the Member State, taking into consideration the specific local, climatic, and social-economic conditions, as well as land uses and soil types, and existing knowledge on what works best for their territory and their farmers.

The proposal further includes an obligation to establish these measures in synergy with existing plans, programmes and targets required under other EU legislation. Member States may therefore decide to include the identified practices under national and European support mechanisms, such as the voluntary measures under the Common Agricultural Policy. Farmers may decide whether or not to enrol in those support programs.

Farmers will be provided with data and knowledge on the state of their soil, so that they can take informed action to improve the health of their soil.  The proposal includes several elements through which Member States can help farmers identify the most suitable practices for their specific circumstances. These include the identification of sustainable management practices, access to financial instruments to support the implementation of sustainable soil management, and easy access to advice, training activities and capacity building. The voluntary option for farmers to have their soil health certified – through a certification scheme that will be developed in synergies with the carbon removal certification – will also bring benefits and new opportunities, as they can be rewarded by the market for good soil stewardship, and receive financial support or incentives.

How will healthier soils help against climate change and weather-related disasters?

Soils store more carbon than the atmosphere and all biomass combined.

The natural capacity of resilient soils, wetlands and forests to store water is higher than what could be achieved through costly new artificial reservoirs. Improved water retention can mitigate floods as well as droughts and make the environment more resilient to landslides and soil erosion. Overall, nature-based solutions for flood prevention, for instance, have high benefit-cost ratios.

Wider application of sustainable soil management in the EU will increase carbon sequestration and water retention. This will help mitigate and adapt to the impact of climate change and assist in achieving the goal of a climate-neutral and resilient Europe by 2050. Healthy soils retain up to 25% of their mass in water, contributing to disaster risk prevention and acting as long-term reservoirs to refill groundwater bodies. Healthy soils with a high-water infiltration rate also support the establishment of wildfire-preventing and resistant vegetation cover.

The monitoring of soil health (e.g., soil organic carbon content and water retention capacity) will improve the implementation of climate mitigation policy and measures as well as our understanding of how to adapt to climate change and prevent disasters.

Certification of healthy soil is expected to increase the value of the carbon removal certificate and provide recognition for sustainable soil management and related food products.

Will it bring additional costs, restrictions or bureaucracy?

The administrative burden of the proposal will be limited because Member States are not required to prepare soil plans or programmes, but to use the assessment on soil health to inform the development of plans and programmes under existing policies on climate, agriculture, disaster risk management, water, air and nature, amongst others, and to meet their targets. The proposed law creates full synergies with current policies, so that the new generated data and assessment of soil health can inform and provide a service to reach EU’s agreed objectives.

The proposal gives authorities and soil managers the flexibility to choose the most appropriate measures and how to apply them. However, it is important that the authorities consult and work closely with relevant stakeholders and citizens, notably farmers and other soil managers.

The burden for monitoring the state of soil will be shared between the Commission and the Member States. The Commission will support the Member States by reinforcing its current EU soil sampling programme LUCAS Soils, and by developing new remote sensing products through Copernicus. Reporting to the Commission will only be required every five years and a common data platform will allow timely access to data and to avoid unnecessary reporting.

What is the role of the EU and what is the role of national and local authorities?

A European framework is needed because the impacts of damaged soils to the environment, economy and society are cross-border and are of a large scale – and because the European level is well placed to provide cost-effective support to national authorities. But this proposed framework will leave a lot of decision-making on the national and local level.

Regarding soil monitoring, Member States will need to put in place all the monitoring arrangements and carry out soil measurements. This monitoring will be done within soil districts, also to be established by the Member States. The Commission will support the Member States’ efforts in monitoring soil health: for example, by carrying out soil surveys as it has done for several years (LUCAS soil), as well as by exploring and developing soil remote sensing products and to set up a digital soil health data portal building on the existing EU soil observatory.

Regarding sustainable soil management, the Commission will give any needed guidance to Member States to define and establish sustainable soil management practices. But the proposal leaves flexibility to national and local authorities to identify the best measures depending on the type and condition of various soils, in consultation with land managers and other relevant stakeholders. The EU will also help the development of these practices by supporting research, especially through the Horizon Europe mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’.

What support is available at EU level?

 ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’, one of the five EU missions of Horizon Europe, is an ambitious programme promoting sustainable soil management, soil monitoring and soil literacy in rural and urban areas. It is therefore a key instrument to implement the Soil Health Law. The Mission Soil:

  • provides funding for research and innovation on areas such as carbon farming, soil contamination and restoration, soil biodiversity or circular economy
  • offers innovative solutions for land managers, such us remediation techniques, sustainable farming practises, materials and tools for advisors and spatial planners
  • creates a network of 100 living labs and lighthouses to test and showcase solutions for sustainable soil management across Europe, for all types of soils and land uses
  • promotes soil monitoring and enhances the access to soil data and information for land managers, policy makers and other stakeholders
  • promotes outreach to raise awareness about the importance of soils and supports education and advise to regarding soil health.

Numerous other EU instruments offer funding opportunities: the Common Agricultural Policy, Cohesion Policy funds, the LIFE programme for environment and climate action, the Technical Support Instrument (TSI), the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) and InvestEU.

Financing for certain practices can also be expected under the proposal for an EU carbon removal certification framework. The certification of soil health rewards farmers and soil managers for the ecosystem services provided by their soil to the society.

Finally, as announced in the EU Soil Strategy, the Commission is setting up a dialogue with the public, private and financial sectors to see how financing the prevention of soil degradation and the regeneration of soil health can be improved.

For More Information

Factsheet on Soil Monitoring Law 

Commission’s proposal for a Directive on Soil Monitoring and Resilience

Source – EU Commission

Press remarks by EU Commission Executive VP Timmermans and Commissioner Sinkevičius on proposals for a more sustainable use of plant and soil natural resources

 

Brussels, 5 July 2023

“Check against delivery”

Executive Vice-President Timmermans:

Thank you very much.

Almost two years ago, we presented Fit for 55 package to implement the climate pillar of the Green Deal. Today, we complement the proposals underpinning the nature pillar.

The Commission is dead set to deliver on the Paris Agreement and climate action via Fit for 55. Now, we set the same level of commitment for the Biodiversity Framework agreed in Montreal last December.

Climate and nature go hand in hand. We need nature to help tackle the climate crisis. And the worse we let the climate crisis become, the more difficult it will be to enable nature to play this role.

You would, perhaps, not say so here in Belgium, but we have just experienced the hottest day ever recorded in the world yesterday, or the day before yesterday. A record that was immediately broken yesterday. And I think the urgency could not be clearer.

And also here, I want to express my commiseration for the lady who died today in the storms in the Netherlands. She was hit by a tree when she was driving a car.

Also these events are clearly linked to climate change. If we need to feel the urgency of action, I think we just need to look outside.

As part of Fit for 55, the European Union agreed to raise carbon removal targets. Whether we meet them will depend on the ability of soil and forests to remove and store carbon from the atmosphere.

At this point, only about a third of European soils are healthy. They are drying out due to droughts or losing fertile topsoil in heavy rains, while chemical pesticides and fertilizers endanger their natural resilience. Forests are likewise struggling, in part due to climate change and plagues like the bark beetle. The bark beetle can do its harm because of droughts, so these things are also interlinked.

Our proposal on soil health provides a lot of good news for citizens, farmers, and businesses, and Virginijus will take you through that in a moment.

The science is extremely clear on the need for action and the benefits, and we ought to act on the factual evidence that is presented to us.

Healthy soils absorb more carbon. More resilient soils bring additional income opportunities for farmers and land managers, including through carbon farming. And finally, healthy soils help us to prepare for the impacts of climate change. They retain water longer and drain it quicker when there is a downpour.

Healing soils and forests means restoring nature. We cannot restore nature – and deliver on our climate ambition – while destroying it with chemicals. This is why last year’s proposal on pesticides is crucial.

Today’s set of proposals on new genomic techniques and on reproductive materials provide solutions for replacing those harmful chemicals.

If, from the outset, a plant is more resilient to droughts or pests, it can sustain increasing climate extremes, and need less pesticides to grow and produce food.

First: the reform of the legislation on plant and forest reproductive material. From 11 different Directives – some dating back to the 1960s – we will go to 2 Regulations to give farmers access to diverse, high-quality, and climate-resilient seeds.

There will be sustainability requirements for all plant reproductive material. For varieties that are developed to be tolerant to herbicides, there are also minimum conditions for their cultivation, such as crop rotation. We need to be sure that such plants do not harm their environment.

The new rules on forest reproductive material will support foresters to plant the right tree in the right place and help meet our target of 3 billion new trees by 2030.

I will go into the proposal on New Genomic Techniques more extensively, as this has raised questions already and Commissioner Kyriakides was unfortunately not able, as you heard, to be here today.

New Genomic Techniques have been developed in the last two decades, and very rapidly so. Member States have previously asked the Commission to study how these techniques can find a way into our legislative framework.

In many ways, New Genomic Techniques can give you the same result as through conventional and natural selection or through targeted crossbreeding, but with much more speed, precision, and efficiency. In other cases, the genetic modifications can be more complex.

In our proposal, we therefore introduce a clear split.

Plants developed with New Genomic Techniques which could have also been created the conventional way will require notification in a central register. The seeds must be labelled clearly to ensure our farmers can choose freely.

Plants that could not have been developed through classic selection or targeted crossbreeding will continue to go through an authorisation process, as already applies to GMO-crops.

For the organics sector, NGTs will not be allowed.

The proposals are the result of an extensive, thorough consultation and are built on science. They apply to plant breeding, not to other areas.

We put in place thorough procedures to maintain a high standard of protection, for our health and the environment. Farmers will have new, more resilient crops available to reduce their use of chemical pesticides and ensure crops are better adapted to climate change. There is a transparent process, and they will be able to make a clear and informed choice.

In parallel, we are also replying to the Council’s request for additional information on the sustainable use of pesticides. Our reply makes clear how to deploy alternatives to chemicals in practically no time. The study also shows that our proposal to cut the use and risk of chemical pesticides in half will help guarantee our food- and feed security.

Let me conclude with a few words on food waste.

Nearly 59 million tonnes of food are wasted in the EU each year, that is more than 130 kilos per person. Meanwhile, we put a lot of pressure on land, using pesticides, water, and fertilisers to produce this food. If food waste were a Member State, it would be the fifth biggest greenhouse gas emitter in the EU.

To waste food at this scale while more than 30 million Europeans cannot afford a proper meal every other day, and while hunger is again on the rise globally, is simply unacceptable.

It is also not what our farmers want: they want to produce high-quality food that feeds people, not [food] that ends trash cans.

That’s why we propose that Member States, by 2030, reduce food waste by 10% in processing and manufacturing and 30% in retail, restaurant, food services and households.

Member States can choose the most suitable measures to meet these targets.

We have also adopted a proposal to tackle textile waste, but Virginijus will go into more detail on that.

Finally, let me be clear that if we want to be serious about preserving our planet for future generations, if we want to be good ancestors, there can be no cherry picking. Today’s proposals are tightly linked to those on nature restoration and the sustainable use of pesticides.

Because for a liveable, sustainable future, we need healthy ecosystems. Our work is not done. Neither on the climate action, nor on the nature pillar, nor on the Green Deal itself.

—

Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius:

Good morning everyone, thank you for coming.

I’d like to start by saying that today’s package brings a unique set of targeted actions to boost Europe’s resilience and complements the rest of our Green Deal initiatives.

I will focus more on our proposal for a new soil law, and our proposal to boost the sustainable management of wastes, focusing on two resource intensive sectors: textiles and food.

Let me start with soil first.

Leonardo Da Vinci said back in 1500:

“We know more about the movement of celestial bodies than about the soil underfoot.”

That still rings true today and it’s high time we change it for our own benefit.

Healthy soils are an essential part of the solution to strengthen resilience to natural disasters, such as floods and droughts that we see affect Europe more and more each year and that have become an alarming concern across our Union.

They also help achieve climate neutrality and zero pollution, revert biodiversity loss and halt desertification.

We need these soils to be healthy for countless reasons. For avoiding soil erosion, for carbon sequestration, for ensuring food production and delivering Europe’s bioeconomy to  protect the health of our citizens.

Soil is the magic carpet that can do all these things all at once without us even noticing its powerful impact on our lives. But right now, the carpet is not looking good.

Up to 70 percent of our soils are in a poor state.

Many have been severely damaged by chemical pesticides and the overuse of nutrients, and 83% of them now contain pesticide residues. Our industrial pollution has also left us a legacy of over 3 million potentially contaminated sites across the EU, which pose a huge risk not only to the environment but also to our and our children’s’ health.

This is costing our economy more than 50 billion euros every year.

On top of that, droughts now cost us around 9 billion euros every year.

Healthy soils are natural water reservoirs. But when soil quality falls, the moisture content falls as well. That has led to a situation where desertification is now a real threat in several Member States.

Today we’re proposing to turn these things around. We are filling a major legal gap to bring soil – together with air and water and the marine environment – under our legal acquis. This will become the first EU law on soil.  Our ultimate objective is to achieve healthy soils by 2050, so that harm to people and environment is avoided, in line with our Zero Pollution ambition.

The draft Law we’re presenting includes a clear definition of soil health and a framework to monitor soil quality. Those will enable a solid knowledge base, bringing together data from national, private and EU sources, including Copernicus.

Importantly, this will allow us to assess the state of soils. Authorities and landowners will be able to take measures to improve conditions, so that soil can deliver its crucial functions.

One example: better data will allow to make the best out of precision farming, increasing yields while actually reducing water and fertiliser use.

The law also proposes sustainable management principles and regenerative practices that will allow farmers and foresters to enhance the quality of soils. These practices will increase carbon sequestration and water retention, which in turn will help reduce the effects of natural disasters and other systemic changes caused by climate change.

We’re also opening the way to additional income opportunities for farmers and landowners, through a voluntary certification scheme for soil health and strong synergies with carbon farming and payments for ecosystem services. We expect a net increase of the value of healthy soils, as well as of the food that is produced on them.

Lastly, we are proposing measures to address soil contamination, an unfortunate legacy from industrial activity that we urgently need to tackle. Under the new law all contaminated soils will be transparently identified, mapped and assessed. Those posing an unacceptable risk will have to be remediated, following the ‘polluter pays principle’, to make sure that the decontamination costs are borne by those responsible for the pollution.

This package is all about resilience and the sustainable use of resources. So the second initiative I want to mention is the proposal to combat waste in two value chains that cause huge pressures on resources: food and textiles.

Let me zoom in on textiles. Right now, textile waste is not only a growing problem. It’s a wasted opportunity. We generate 12.6 million tonnes of this waste every year.

5.2 million tonnes of textile waste is clothing and footwear. That’s 12 kilogrammes wasted for every person, every year. And only one fifth of that amount is collected separately for re-use or recycling.

That means that most of used textiles – around 80 percent – are lost to the economy, ending up in incinerators or landfills.

Our proposal is to involve the industry much more closely in the circular economy for textiles. We’re doing that by introducing mandatory and harmonised Extended Producer Responsibility schemes for textiles in all EU Member States.

That means making producers take responsibility for the entire lifecycle of the textiles they place on the EU market, especially of course when those products reach the end of their life – or the beginning of a new one.

We are also proposing rules to ensure that collected used textiles are sorted for reuse as a priority, and if they cannot be reused – for recycling. Energy recovery should be minimised and the landfilling of textiles should become a thing of the past.

This proposal should have two effects.

In the short term, it will help finance proper waste management in line with the polluter-pays principle. Better separate collection, sorting, re-use, and recycling within the EU will enhance the markets for second-hand textiles, create local jobs and support the social economy.

And over a longer time frame, it will increase the circularity of textiles manufacturing, boost circular economy business models and tackle fast fashion. There will be more research and innovation in innovative technologies, including fiber-to-fiber recycling.

Producers will have a bigger incentive to make products that are easier to recycle, because their financial contributions will depend on the circularity and environmental performance of textile products.

This is what we call “eco-modulation of fees”.

There is one other important aspect of this proposal.

It will clarify exactly what constitutes waste, and what we mean by re-usable textiles.

That will help reduce illegal shipments where waste is actually disguised as reusable products.

I very much hope that the co-legislators can move quickly with these proposals, as Europe needs them in delivering on the ground.

Thank you.

Source – EU Commission

 

 

 

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