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Overview

To give work under the Programme a clear direction and focus, the Commission sets out its vision of where it wants the Union to be by 2050: In 2050, we live well, within the planet's ecological limits. Our prosperity and healthy environment stem from an innovative, circular economy where nothing is wasted and where natural resources are managed in ways that enhance our society's resilience. Our low carbon growth has long been decoupled from resource use, setting the pace for a global sustainable economy.

Protecting and enhancing natural capital, encouraging more resource efficiency and accelerating the transition to the low-carbon economy are key features of the programme, which also seeks to tackle environmental causes of disease. The results should help stimulate sustainable growth and create new jobs to set the Union on a path to becoming a better and healthier place to live. The Commission proposes to focus action on nine priority objectives.

Three thematic priority objectives are intended to

• Protect nature and strengthen ecological resilience
• Boost sustainable resource-efficient low-carbon growth, and
• Effectively address environment-related threats to health.

The thematic priorities are supported by an enabling framework with four further priority objectives which will:

• promote better implementation of EU environment law,
• ensure that policies benefit from state of the art science,
• secure the necessary investments in support of environment and climate change policy,
• improve the way environmental concerns and requirements are reflected in other policies.

Two more priority objectives focus on:

• enhancing the sustainability of EU cities, and
• improving the EU's effectiveness in addressing regional and global challenges related to the environment and climate change.