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Enabling conditions to attain the priority objectives The attainment of the priority objectives set out in Article 2 shall require the following from the Commission, Member States, regional and local authorities and stakeholders, as appropriate:

(a) ensuring effective, swift and full implementation of Union legislation and strategies on the environment and the climate and striving for excellence in environmental performance at Union, national, regional and local levels, including by providing sufficient administrative and compliance assurance capacity, as laid out in the regular Environmental Implementation Review, supporting and cooperating with networks of practitioners, such as the European Union Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law, the European Network of Prosecutors for the Environment, the European Union Forum of Judges for the Environment and the European Network for Environmental Crime;

(b) prioritising enforcement of Union environmental law where implementation is lacking, including through infringement proceedings, as well as by ensuring that sufficient financial and human resources are allocated for that purpose and that information on those proceedings is complete and easily accessible, while respecting Union law;

(c) improving guidance and recommendations, including on effective, dissuasive and proportionate penalties to reduce risks of non-compliance with Union environmental law, as well as stepping up action in the area of environmental liability and responses to non-compliance, and strengthening judicial cooperation in the area of, and law enforcement against, environmental crime as laid down in relevant Union legislation, such as Directive 2008/99/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council ;

(d) strengthening the integrated approach to policy development and implementation, in particular by:

(i) mainstreaming the priority objectives set out in Article 2, as well as, where relevant, the SDGs, in all relevant strategies, legislative and non-legislative initiatives, programmes, investments and projects at Union, national, regional and local levels, as well as in relevant international agreements concluded by the Union after 2 May 2022, in order to ensure that those strategies, legislative and non-legislative initiatives, programmes, investments, projects and international agreements and their implementation are consistent with, contribute where relevant, and do no harm to any of the priority objectives set out in Article 2;

(ii) maximising the benefits from implementing the Directives 2011/92/EU and 2001/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council;

(iii) systematically screening and, where appropriate, assessing synergies and potential trade-offs between environmental, social and economic objectives for all initiatives, so as to ensure that people’s well-being, and in particular their need for a healthy environment, clean air and affordable, accessible and high-quality food, water, energy, housing, green infrastructure and mobility are met in a sustainable way that leaves no one behind;

(iv) adopting a ‘Think Sustainability First’ approach, including by integrating, where relevant, the SDGs in the ‘better regulation’ guidelines and the ‘better regulation’ toolbox, as well as streamlining and operationalising the ‘do no harm’ principle;

(v) regularly evaluating existing policies and, where appropriate, proposing new legislation, based on, where relevant, impact assessments that build upon wide and transparent consultations – following procedures that are accountable, inclusive, informed and simple to implement – and that take into account the full range of immediate and long-term impacts on the environment and climate as part of an integrated analysis of economic, social and environmental impacts, including their cumulative effects, as well as the costs of action and inaction;

(vi) presenting, within 8 weeks of closure of a public consultation by the Commission, detailed feedback on stakeholder consultation responses, distinguishing between contributions from different types of stakeholders;

(e) developing a summary dashboard and indicator set measuring ‘beyond GDP’, based on, inter alia, a targeted consultation with all relevant stakeholders as well as a report which identifies the interlinkages between existing indicator sets, monitoring frameworks and processes at Union level measuring social, economic and environmental progress and which proposes action on how existing dashboards and indicator sets can be streamlined;

(f) ensuring that social inequalities resulting from climate- and environmental-related impacts and policies are minimised and that measures taken to protect the environment and climate are carried out in a socially fair and inclusive way;

(g) gender mainstreaming throughout climate and environmental policies, including by incorporating a gender perspective at all stages of the policy-making process;

(h) strengthening environmentally positive incentives as well as phasing out environmentally harmful subsidies, in particular fossil fuel subsidies, at Union, national, regional and local level, without delay, inter alia, by:

(i) a binding Union framework to monitor and report on Member States’ progress towards phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, based on an agreed methodology;

(ii) setting a deadline for the phasing out of fossil fuel subsidies consistent with the ambition of limiting global warming to 1,5 °C;

(iii) a methodology that is set out by the Commission, in consultation with Member States, by 2023, to identify other environmentally harmful subsidies; on the basis of that methodology Member States shall identify other environmentally harmful subsidies and report them regularly to the Commission, allowing for a Commission report on the level and type of such subsidies in the Union, and on progress made on phasing them out;

(i) mainstreaming biodiversity action in the Union’s policies and contributing to the achievement of the overall ambition of providing 7,5 % of annual spending under the multiannual financial framework 2021-2027 to biodiversity objectives in 2024 and 10 % of that annual spending in 2026 and in 2027, with such spending to be tracked using an effective, transparent and comprehensive methodology, while considering the existing overlaps between climate and biodiversity goals;

(j) ensuring effective climate and biodiversity mainstreaming and proofing of the Union budget as well as consistency between climate and biodiversity funding;

(k) promoting the sound management of chemicals at international level, whilst also promoting the global phase-down of substances which are not authorised in the Union;

(l) swiftly substituting substances of concern, including substances of very high concern, endocrine disruptors, very persistent chemicals, neurotoxicants and immuno-toxicants, as well as tackling the combination effects of chemicals, nano-forms of substances and exposure to hazardous chemicals from products, assessing their impacts on health and the environment, including climate, and biodiversity, whilst promoting safe and sustainable by-design chemicals and materials and stepping up and coordinating efforts to promote the development and validation of alternatives to animal testing;

(m) addressing land degradation and ensuring the protection and sustainable use of soil, including by way of a dedicated legislative proposal on soil health by 2023;

(n) transforming the Union’s food system, so that, inter alia, it contributes to protecting and restoring biodiversity within and outside the Union and ensures a high level of animal welfare, whilst ensuring a just transition for affected stakeholders;

(o) holistically recognising the interconnections between human health, animal health and the environment through integration of the One Health approach in policy making;

(p) advancing towards the recognition of a right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment internationally;

(q) making full use of ecosystem approaches and green infrastructure, including biodiversity-friendly nature based solutions, whilst also ensuring that their implementation restores biodiversity and enhances ecosystem integrity and connectivity, has clear societal co-benefits, requiring full engagement with, and consent of, indigenous peoples and local communities, and does not replace or undermine measures taken to protect biodiversity or reduce greenhouse gas emissions within the Union;

(r) making use of existing tools and methodologies as well as further improving monitoring methods, evaluation tools and measurable indicators for nature-based solutions;

(s) significantly decreasing the Union’s material and consumption footprints to bring them into planetary boundaries as soon as possible, including through the introduction of Union 2030 reduction targets, as appropriate;

(t) effectively integrating the SDGs as well as climate and environmental objectives in the European Semester of economic governance, without prejudice to its original purpose, including in the National Reform Programmes and national recovery and resilience plans;

(u) mobilising resources and ensuring sufficient sustainable investments from public and private sources, including of funds and instruments available under the Union budget, via the European Investment Bank and at national level, consistent with the Union’s sustainable finance policy agenda;

(v) making the best use of environmental taxation, market-based instruments and green budgeting and financing tools, including those required to ensure a socially fair transition, and supporting businesses and other stakeholders in developing and applying standardised natural capital accounting practices;

(w) ensuring that environment policies and action at Union, national, regional and local level are based on the best available scientific knowledge and technologies, and strengthening the environmental knowledge base, including indigenous and local knowledge, and its uptake, including through research, innovation, fostering green skills, training and retraining, and further building up environmental and ecosystem accounting;

(x) developing and consolidating the knowledge base, inter alia, on the requirements for systemic change, how to shift from a silo- and sector-based policy focus to a systemic approach to policy coherence, as well as the capacity of different ecosystems to act as greenhouse gas sinks and stocks;

(y) harnessing the potential of digital and data technologies to support environment policy, including by delivering real-time data where possible and information on the state of ecosystems, while increasing efforts to minimise the environmental footprint of these technologies, and ensuring transparency, authenticity, interoperability and public accessibility of the data and information;