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For a long time the EU has had laws governing air and water quality. But it has never regulated soil. In April, though, that changed when the Union passed the proposal to introduce its first soil monitoring law. An estimated 60 to 70 per cent of European soils are in bad condition due to human activity.
The law will require member states to monitor and assess soil health, but it lacks any legally-binding targets. Targets that campaigners believe are crucial for the bloc to meet its green goals. Healthy soil is critical for both the planet's health and food production.
A 2022 UN report estimates that up to 40 per cent of all soils worldwide are moderately or severely degraded. The destruction is caused largely by harmful farming methods, which can lead to factors such as erosion, compaction, carbon loss, nutrient imbalances, and contamination.
Of more concern, the EU's Joint Research Centre says the global soil erosion rate is projected to increase by 30 to 66 per cent over the period 2015 to 2070, under three separate scenarios. In the worst case, the total real GDP loss over that period could reach $625bn.
Healthy soil is also critical to the climate. It's among the three largest carbon sinks on the planet, along with forests and oceans. Replacing lost or degraded soil isn't easy. It takes about 500 years for a single inch of soil to form. Methods to preserve the earth beneath our feet include ensuring continuous ground cover with crops, minimising tillage, avoiding excessive use of fertilisers, and employing crop rotation.
The EU's new law might be a step in the right direction, but it may be an expensive one. In its draft proposal the Commission said that the annual cost of tackling contaminated soils alone was highly uncertain and could be nearly 2bn euros just to identify and investigate polluted sites.
The overall cost of implementing policies would be between 28bn and 38bn euros a year. That certainly isn't cheap. Though the Commission did say that the economic benefits of soil restoration were expected to be double the costs.
