By The Movement For Community-led Development
What does the Zero Pollution Action Plan involve specifically?
It is a very broad topic and difficult to define, but one of the key objectives is to encourage and
promote inclusion of pollution prevention in all relevant EU policies. Other key elements of the plan
include addressing inequalities in exposure to pollution, better implementation and enforcement,
collective action and changes across society, championing global change towards zero pollution and
developing a more integrated approach to monitoring pollution.
The action plan also recognises that to achieve these ambitions, we need to ensure that policy
measures are based on the prevention of pollution at the source, with concepts such as remediation of environmental pollution and ‘end-of-pipe’ elimination being less sustainable as long-term measures.
The plan itself includes a comprehensive list of specific actions to be taken to initiate delivery on the
zero pollution ambition (with timeframes for these actions), as well as defining nine specific ‘Flagships’ actions that are set out in the action plan. For example, Flagship 1 is ‘reducing health inequalities through zero pollution’.
The overall timeframe for the action plan looks towards 2050; however, the plan also includes targets for 2030 to help gather some initial momentum in delivering on the zero pollution ambition.
Source article: https://www.eea.europa.eu/articles/interview-how-does-europe-get-to-zero-pollution