The European Commission has presented a proposal for its eighth Environment Action Program in response to current sustainability challenges. The program will guide European environmental policy until 2030 and supports the environment and climate action objectives of the European Green Deal. It will also form the EU’s basis for achieving the United Nation’s 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals.

The program calls for ‘active engagement of all stakeholders at all levels of governance to ensure that EU climate and environment laws are effectively implemented’. It suggests a new monitoring framework to measure and communicate progress on its six priority objectives below:

1. “achieving the 2030 greenhouse gas emission reduction target and climate neutrality by 2050
2. enhancing adaptive capacity, strengthening resilience and reducing vulnerability to climate change
3. advancing towards a regenerative growth model, decoupling economic growth from resource use and environmental degradation, and accelerating the transition to a circular economy
4. pursuing a zero-pollution ambition, including for air, water and soil and protecting the health and well-being of Europeans
5. protecting, preserving and restoring biodiversity, and enhancing natural capital (notably air, water, soil, and forest, freshwater, wetland and marine ecosystems)
6. reducing environmental and climate pressures related to production and consumption (particularly in the areas of energy, industrial development, buildings and infrastructure, mobility and the food system)”

The proposal will have to be discussed by the European Parliament and the Council before it is adopted.