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This risk is commonly referred to as the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, driven notably by the world’s ever-growing consumption of natural resources. In addition, the depletion of natural resources, which is itself a driver of the triple crisis, is highlighted as a key concern,

• Failure to address climate change. In its 6^th assessment report (AR6) (2021), the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) observes that the cumulative scientific evidence is unequivocal: any further delay in global action on adaptation and mitigation will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all. Overshooting 1.5°C may push the earth over several tipping points which, if triggered, will rapidly cascade through socio-economic and ecological systems, leading to severe effects on human and natural systems and imposing important challenges for human adaptation⁽⁷⁾. Societal choices and actions implemented in the next decade determine the extent to which climate resilient development will be possible.
• Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse. The Global Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES, 2019) observes that nature is essential for human well-being and that nature’s contributions to people are not replaceable. Biodiversity is declining faster than at any other point during human history. International environmental goals will not be achieved based on current trajectories, due to the projected impacts of increasing use of land and sea, exploitation of organisms and climate change. As our ecosystems deteriorate so do the sinks that sequester carbon and provide protection against the impacts of climate change, such as floods or extreme heat.

About 75 % of global land surface is significantly altered, 66 % of the ocean area is experiencing human impacts, over 85 % of wetland area has been lost, and around 1 million species face extinction.

• Pollution. In its report Towards a Pollution-Free Planet, UNEP observes that pollution is not a new phenomenon; it is largely controllable and often avoidable, but considerably neglected. Pollution puts stress on ecosystems and often imposes a disproportionate burden on the poor and the vulnerable such as the elderly, children and the disabled. Responses by governments, business and citizens to pollution remain limited in scope and scale. Pollution is the largest environmental cause of disease and premature death (9 million annually). World Health Organization (WHO) data show that almost the whole global population (99 %) breathe air that exceeds WHO guideline limits and contains high levels of pollutants, with low- and middle-income countries suffering from the highest exposure⁽⁸⁾.
• Destructive exploitation of natural resources including raw materials. In its Global Resources Outlook (2024), the UN International Resource Panel has calculated that over the past five decades, our global population has doubled and the use of natural resources has more than tripled. The extraction and processing of natural resources accounts for more than 90 % of our biodiversity loss and water stress and approximately half of our greenhouse gas emissions.

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Mainstreaming (environment and climate change): the deliberate and proactive integration of environmental concerns, including climate, into development policies, plans, budgets and actions (OECD-DAC, 2019).

Greening: beyond ‘mainstreaming’ (of environment and climate change), which refers to systematically integrating environment and climate change in EU cooperation, ‘greening’ aims to align EU international cooperation with its environmental and climate objectives; it emphasises the need not only to design actions that minimise their adverse effects on the environment and climate (do no harm/do no significant harm) but to identify actions and initiatives that make positive contributions to the green transition towards environmental sustainability, climate resilience and low-carbon development.

Green transition: the European Green Deal envisions an economy ensuring no net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050 and economic growth decoupled from resource use (including through a circular economy), pollution and biodiversity loss.

Transformative change is a fundamental, system-wide reorganisation across technological, economic and social factors, including paradigms, goals and values (IPBES Global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services). Within the context of climate change, transformative change can be understood as a system-wide change that requires more than technological change through consideration of social and economic factors that, with technology, can bring about rapid change at scale (IPCC Global warming of 1.5ºC report).

Environment: the combination of elements whose complex interrelationships make up the settings, the surroundings and the conditions of life of the individual and of society, as they are or as they are felt (European Environment Agency). Environmental issues therefore include climate mitigation and adaptation; the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of biodiversity and ecosystem services; the preservation and sustainable use of natural resources; pollution prevention and control.

Climate change: refers to a change in the state of the climate that can be identified (e.g. by using statistical tests) by changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer. Climate change may be due to natural internal processes or external forcings such as modulations of the solar cycles, volcanic eruptions and persistent anthropogenic changes in the composition of the atmosphere or in land use. Note that the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), in its Article 1, defines climate change as: ‘a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods.’ (Special Report SR15 of the IPCC).

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The Paris Agreement is the main legally binding treaty on climate change. Adopted by 196 parties in 2015 under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), it sets an overarching goal, holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change;. Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) are at the heart of the agreement; they require all Parties to undertake and communicate ambitious efforts to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change (The NDC can be found in the UNFCCC NDC Registry). Each Party is required to prepare, communicate, improve the quality and increase the ambition of its NDC, working on five-year cycles. The Paris Agreement invites countries to submit long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies (LT-LEDS), providing the long-term horizon to the NDC. The Paris Agreement also aims to significantly strengthen national adaptation efforts, including through international cooperation, and invites all countries to formulate and implement National Adaptation Plans (NAPs). Unlike NDC, LT-LEDS and NAPs are not mandatory. From 2024 onwards, an enhanced transparency framework (ETF) established at country level shall track actions taken and progress in climate change mitigation, adaptation measures and support provided or received.

The Montreal Protocol (1987) was designed to stop the production and import of ozone depleting substances (ODS) and reduce their concentration in the atmosphere to help protect the earth’s ozone layer. The Montreal Protocol is considered highly successful: 99 % of ODS were eliminated from the atmosphere and the ozone layer is expected to return to average 1980 levels by 2040.

In 2022, the 196 parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), a landmark set of goals and targets to conserve, restore and sustainably use biodiversity, to share the benefits of its use in an equitable manner, and to provide adequate means of implementation. The GBF has a number of quantified and time-bound voluntary targets, including a commitment that by 2030, 30 % of the earth’s surface is protected, 30 % of degraded areas are restored, invasive species are reduced by 50%, harmful subsidies are phased out by USD 500 billion per year, and at least USD 200 billion per year are mobilised for the implementation of National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs), i.e. the measures to be taken by each Party for the implementation of the Convention.

The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is the only internationally legally binding framework set up to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of drought, with the view to contributing to sustainable development in the affected areas.

The Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 aims to achieve substantial reduction of disaster risk and losses in lives, livelihoods and health and in the economic, physical, social, cultural and environmental assets of persons, businesses, communities and countries. It outlines seven clear targets and four priorities for action to prevent new and reduce existing disaster risks: (i) Understanding disaster risk; (ii) Strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk; (iii) Investing in disaster reduction for resilience; and (iv) Enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response, and to ‘Build Back Better’ in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction. 

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This is only a snapshot of some of the most important MEAs. Other MEAs cover air pollution, chemicals and waste, civil protection, environmental governance, land use, nature and biodiversity, seas and oceans and water.  Click here for a list of MEAs ratified by the EU.

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• Climate mitigation. The ‘fit for 55’ package (2021) aims to realise the European Climate Law objectives: climate neutrality by 2050 and a 55 % reduction of net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030. The proposals aim to accelerate emission reductions in the sectors covered by the EU emissions trading system (ETS) and the sectors covered by the Effort-sharing Regulation, and to increase carbon removals in the land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector.
• Climate adaptation. The EU Adaptation Strategy sets out how the European Union can adapt to the unavoidable impacts of climate change and become climate resilient by 2050, based on four objectives: to make adaptation smarter, swifter and more systemic, and to step up international action on adaptation to climate change.
• Biodiversity. The EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 sets out a truly ambitious and far-reaching programme of measures to halt and reverse biodiversity loss in the EU and across the globe. It is closely linked to the CBD Global Biodiversity Framework.
• Circular economy. The Circular Economy Action Plan announces initiatives along the entire life cycle of products. It targets how products are designed, promotes circular economy processes, encourages sustainable consumption, and aims to prevent waste production and that resources are kept in the economy for as long as possible.
• Pollution. The Zero-Pollution Action Plan presents key 2030 targets to speed up reducing pollution at source. The action plan aims to strengthen the EU green, digital and economic leadership, whilst creating a healthier, socially fairer Europe and planet. It provides a compass to mainstream pollution prevention in all relevant EU policies, to step up implementation of the relevant EU legislation and to identify possible gaps.
• Mobility. The European Green Deal has a target to achieve a 90 % reduction in transport-related greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 within the EU. The New European Urban Mobility Framework provides guidance for local action on sustainable mobility, including on transport networks, urban logistics, multimodal terminals, walking and cycling, and the management of mobility flows.
• Agriculture. The Farm-to-Fork Strategy aims to accelerate the transition to a sustainable food system that should have a neutral or positive environmental impact, help to mitigate climate change and adapt to its impacts, reverse the loss of biodiversity, ensure food security, nutrition and public health, making sure that everyone has access to sufficient, safe, nutritious, sustainable food, preserve affordability of food while generating fairer economic returns, fostering competitiveness of the EU supply sector and promoting fair trade.
• Forestry. The New EU Forest Strategy for 2030 recognises the central and multifunctional role of forests, and the contribution of forests and of forest-based value chains for achieving a sustainable and climate neutral economy by 2050 and preserving lively and prosperous rural areas.
• Sustainable finance. The EU Sustainable Finance Strategy is instrumental in reaching climate and environmental targets by enabling investors to re-orient investments towards more sustainable technologies and businesses. The strategy notably includes the European Green Bond Standard proposal and the EU Taxonomy for sustainable activities. On the international front, the Global Green Bond Initiative (GGBI) aims to support the expansion of green bond markets in the EU partner countries. Moreover, the Sustainable Finance Advisory Hub provides technical support for developing sustainable finance frameworks and sustainability-related financial instruments in partner countries. The hub will also assist GGBI partners in their expansion of green bond markets.
• Fair transition. A Council Recommendation sets out guidance to address employment and social aspects for a fair transition towards climate neutrality. Particular attention goes to people and households highly dependent on fossil fuels and that could be most affected by the green transition. With the right actions and policies in place, the green transition has the potential to create additional jobs.
• Education. EU Member States have confirmed their commitment to green education by adopting both a Council Recommendation on learning for the green transition and sustainable development and Council Conclusions on The transformative role of education for sustainable development and global citizenship as an instrumental tool for the achievement of the sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Some of the legislative initiatives prompted by the European Green Deal have implications for actors in third countries. For example, in relation to Regulation on deforestation and forest degradation or the Regulation establishing a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM). Greening EU cooperation can contribute to addressing the implications of these policy and legislative initiatives in third countries.

A timeline on the implementation of the Green Deal can be consulted here.

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