The EU's soil strategy for 2030, launched on 17 November 2021 in the framework of the European Green Deal, will step up efforts to enhance soil management, protect soil fertility, reduce erosion and sealing, increase organic matter, increase soil carbon in agricultural land and restore degraded soils, so that by 2050 all soil ecosystems are healthy.

The proposed Soil Strategy is also an important deliverable of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 for tackling the climate and biodiversity crises. The Strategy sets a framework with concrete measures for the protection, restoration and sustainable use of soils and proposes a set of voluntary and legally binding measures. This strategy aims to increase the soil carbon in agricultural land, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, and ensure that by 2050, all soil ecosystems are in a healthy condition.

Soil is an essential ecosystem containing more than 25% of all living organisms on the planet. Soil provides food, biomass and fibres, regulates water, carbon and nutrient cycles, making life possible. We have to grant it the same level of protection as air and water. Healthy soils are a key ally in the fight against climate change: they are the largest terrestrial carbon pool in the planet. By absorbing and retaining water they reduce the risk of flooding, heat waves and drought. Soil degradation entails loss of ecosystem services which are estimated at around € 50 billion per year in the EU. Erosion alone costs European farmers € 1.25 billion per year.

The key actions in the Soil Strategy are:

• to manage soils sustainably through a scheme for land owners to get their soils tested for free and through the Common Agricultural Policy and the sharing of best practices;
• to boost circular economy by investigating streams of excavated soils and considering proposing a ‘soil passport’ and by integrating a ‘land take hierarchy’ to enhance reuse of land and less use of new land, reaching no net land take by 2050;
• to restore degraded soils and remediate contaminated sites;
• to act to prevent desertification;
• to increase research, especially through a dedicated Horizon Europe mission, as well as data and monitoring on soil;
• to mitigate and adapt to climate change, consider proposing legally binding objectives to limit the drainage of wetlands and organic soils, and to restore managed and drained peat lands; and
• to mobilise the necessary societal engagement and financial resources.

It is planned that by 2023 a new Soil Health Law will be proposed, following an impact assessment and broad consultation of stakeholders and Member States. The Strategy also envisages mobilizing the necessary societal engagement and financial resources, shared knowledge, and promotes sustainable soil management practices and monitoring, supporting the EU ambition for global action on soil.

At the international level, the EU will continue promoting and contributing to the global action for soil and land protection and restoration projects, by participating in international forums and initiatives and through policy dialogue and financial and technical support to partner countries. This includes the promotion of sustainable soil and land management through Green Deal diplomacy. Key examples are the Great Green Wall and the Regreening Africa initiative, which are bringing life back to Africa’s degraded landscapes at an unprecedented scale, providing food security and jobs along its path, and building the resilience of communities by improving sustainable land management and adaptation to climate change impacts.

Read more:

• EU Soil Strategy
• Commission Staff Working Document