In July 2023, the European Commission tabled a proposal of what would be the EU’s first law on soil health. The proposed law aims to establish a harmonised monitoring system and tackle the widespread degradation of soils in Europe.
In the face of the urgent crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, as well as the Russian Ukraine war underlining the geo-strategic need for food security, the soils beneath our feet are as vital a resource as ever.
The top layer of the Earth’s crust is composed of various organic and inorganic parts, and these soils form the basis of our ecosystems, the economy and society. Soils are the root of agriculture, providing 98.8% of food and are also teeming with life, home to more than half of all living species on the planet.
The rich biodiversity living in soils maintains their structure and health, cycling nutrients and keeping them fertile.
Solid ground for tackling climate change
Healthy soils also have an important role to play in preventing and adapting to the worst effects of climate change. By absorbing and storing carbon from the atmosphere, soils are a significant carbon sink, the second largest globally after the ocean. European topsoil alone is estimated to store around 75 billion tonnes of carbon.
This makes soils essential for reaching climate neutrality and achieving the targets of the Paris Agreement.
Dr Jan Peter Lesschen, senior researcher on soil and climate at Wageningen University & Research: “…soils have the capacity to sequester carbon. If compared to their natural state, soils have lost a lot of carbon, especially soils on arable land. By having better soil management, you are able to increase the soil carbon content again. You will need to include soil carbon… if you want to reach those climate goals.” – Read the full interview with Jan Peter Lesschen
According to him, another key service that healthy soils offer to help adapt to climate change, is improving resilience to extreme weather events:
“Soils that are in good condition and have more organic carbon have a better structure and can hold more water, which in drier periods can help prevent damage to crops. They also improve water drainage and prevent issues with water logging when there is a lot of rain. We are already seeing much more of the effects of climate change and farmers are more aware that they should work on their soil.”
Treating soils like dirt
Despite their importance, European soils are in a sorry state, with 60-70% of them estimated to be in poor health. This widespread degradation has multiple causes, mostly linked to the intensification of agriculture and land use.
Agricultural intensification depletes soil of its organic components and nutrients, meaning more artificial fertilisers and pesticides are used, further upsetting the chemical balance. 83% of European soils are contaminated with pesticide residues, while over 3 million soil sites are potentially contaminated with industrial pollution.
The physical qualities of soil are also affected, with machinery and urban expansion contributing to soil compaction and sealing.
Soil erosion can cause soil to be lost completely, swept away by wind or water. This can be irreversible, a major problem considering that it can take up to 1000 years to create 1cm of fertile soil.
Climate change is ramping up the pressure on soils as well. Higher temperatures means more organic activity in soils, threatening to make soils a carbon source rather than a sink, while at the same time greater rainfall raises the risk of soil erosion.
This degradation reduces the capacity of soils to provide their essential services, affecting the quality and quantity of crop yields, and hindering their ability to store carbon and to protect against extreme weather. This comes with a hefty price tag, estimated to cost the EU 50 billion euros per year.
Sustainable management practices to improve soil health are specific to local conditions, but can generally include:
- increasing soil vegetation cover;
- ensuring crop rotation and diversity;
- minimising physical disturbance. and;
- adapting machinery use and livestock grazing.
The first EU soil law
The European Commission proposed in 2023 a Directive on Soil Monitoring and Resilience, which, if successfully adopted, would be the first EU law of its kind specifically addressing soil health.
The Directive’s objective is to establish a common framework for monitoring all soils across the EU, to have healthy soils by 2050 and to reduce contamination. It addresses the current fragmented nature of soil monitoring and protection amongst Member States, highlighting the need for harmonisation to ensure consistency and comparability.
Dr José A. Gomez, agricultural engineer at the Institute of Sustainable Agriculture (IAS) of the Spanish National Research Council: “If you do not have reliable numbers on a situation, there is very little you can do about it. In the European Union soil monitoring is very uneven among countries…Some countries have much better monitoring systems than others and have policies better orientated to national policies and management practices. So it is difficult to make progress in soil unless we agree on a common system of monitoring, which as a focus of the Directive, I think most people will welcome.” – Read the full interview with José A. Gomez
The Commission’s proposal sets out governance requirements for soil monitoring, including the establishment of “soil districts”, designation of monitoring authorities, and soil measurement methodologies and criteria.
As a Directive, the proposal offers flexibility to Member States in how they implement the measures needed to reach the goals, accounting for the wide range of soils covered.
The need for flexibility to adapt to local situations is underlined by Dr Gomez: “Not all farms are of the same size or have the same equipment, while some good management practices will have greater risks for production. From that point of view, you need to be a bit flexible. It can be tricky to legislate on reaching this compromise because you cannot be too flexible otherwise you will not push in the right direction.”
Next steps
The European Parliament’s ENVI Committee adopted its report on the proposed Directive in March 2024, with the plenary adopting its first negotiating position in April 2024.
The EU environment ministers adopted the Council’s position on the proposal in June 2024 with interinstitutional negotiations on the file beginning later this year.
Related content:
• A scientist’s opinion: Interview with José Gomez on soil health and climate
• A scientist’s opinion: Interview with Jan Peter Lesschen on soil health and climate