European Green Deal: Zero Pollution Stakeholder Platform kicks off

Today, the members of the Stakeholder Platform announced by the EU Action Plan: “Towards Zero Pollution for Air, Water and Soil” met for the first time to start developing their 2022-2024 work programme, meant to support the implementation of the Action Plan. The European Commission launched the platform together with the European Committee of the Regions.

Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevičius added

The Zero Pollution Stakeholder Platform has an important role to play in implementing our ambition of achieving zero pollution by 2050. There is a lot of work ahead of us. We invite all stakeholders involved to develop and share good practices, and to seek synergies with other relevant initiatives, be it the European Climate Pact, the Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform or others.

The President of the European Committee of the Regions and Governor of the Region of Central Macedonia in Greece, Apostolos Tzitzikostas said:

Pollution is the leading environmental cause of disease and premature death around the world and is impacting our climate, ecosystems, built environment and local economies. Pollution does not stop at borders and hits the health and wellbeing of our local communities. By co-chairing the Zero Pollution Stakeholder Platform, we are committed to making the EU work to support every city, region and village. Europe's local and regional governments are acting to protect their people and environment, but now need direct technical and financial EU support to accelerate our efforts to deliver zero-pollution.

The Zero Pollution Stakeholder Platform will help deliver on the flagship initiatives and actions set out in the Zero Pollution Action Plan by:

bringing together actors from different communities and areas of expertise to tackle inter-related challenges, e.g. strengthening a joint environment and health agenda;
defining a common vision on how to achieve zero pollution objectives;
developing and sharing good practices on cross-cutting topics, and creating thematic hubs like the Clean Air Tech Hub.

Background

Pollution is the largest environmental cause of mental and physical diseases, and of premature death, especially among vulnerable groups such as children, people with certain medical conditions and older generations. People who live in more deprived areas often live close to contaminated sites or in areas with elevated traffic flows. Pollution is also one of the main reasons for the loss of biodiversity, diminishing the capacity of ecosystems to provide services such as carbon sequestration and air and water decontamination.

The Zero Pollution Action Plan – a key deliverable of the European Green Deal - was adopted on 12 May 2021. It sets out an integrated vision for 2050 to reduce pollution to levels that are no longer harmful to human health and natural ecosystems, as well as intermediary targets for 2030, and actions to achieve the objectives.