8th Environment Action Programme: Green Deal

Yesterday, the Commission presented a list of headline indicators for monitoring progress towards the EU’s environment and climate goals to 2030, as well as the 2050 long-term vision to ‘live well, within planetary boundaries’.

Resulting from intense consultations with stakeholders and Member States, the new Monitoring Framework under the 8^th Environment Action Programme aims to foster transparency and inform Europeans about the impact of EU climate and environmental policy.

EU policies have to ensure that the EU gets back on track to living and working within planetary boundaries. As such, the indicators capture progress towards environmental wellbeing, including also economic and social aspects. As such, they could pave the way for measuring the health of our economies and societies based on wellbeing, and beyond the most well-known economic indicator, GDP.

The headline indicators follow the structure of the 8^th Environment Action Programme building on the European Green Deal and include the 2-3 most policy relevant and statistically robust indicators for each of the thematic priority objectives to 2030, covering climate mitigation, climate adaptation, circular economy, zero pollution, and biodiversity.

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In addition, the list includes five indicators to measure progress towards addressing the main environmental and climate pressures. In line with European Green Deal objectives, this covers the transition we need to see in the coming years towards sustainable systems for energy, industry, mobility and food.

Moreover, the headline set includes indicators to monitor progress towards the main enabling conditions, covering sustainable finance, the ‘polluters-pay principle’, and phasing out environmentally harmful subsidies.

The last chapter of the monitoring framework includes systemic indicators that aim to capture progress towards the three dimensions of environmental wellbeing, to cover also economic and social aspects beyond nature protection.

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Next steps

The Commission will report annually on the progress made, based on stocktaking done by the European Environment Agency from 2023 onwards, with the help of the selected headline indicators. This reporting will facilitate an annual exchange between the Commission, the Member States and the European Parliament to be held in accordance with the 8^th Environmental Action Programme.

In addition, the Commission will conduct two in-depth assessments during the lifespan of the programme – a mid-term review in 2024 and a final evaluation in 2029.

More information: Press Release – European Commission