The consultation to gather views of citizens on the Roadmap tp EU Action Plan “Towards a Zero Pollution Ambition for air, water and soil” was opened until 29 October 2020 made our HERA consortium to comment.
What did we emphasise?
We outlined that the upcoming EU Action Plan “Towards a Zero Pollution Ambition for air, water and soil” would need a research component essential and integral to an optimal sustainable effort to protect EU citizens. We pointed out that many gaps in our knowledge on assessing effects of policies including technological developments and economic activities implementation on ecoystems, human populations and society remain to date. We agreed that the EU organizes identification of levels and trends of contaminants in air, water and soil via range of monitoring activities, but our understanding of evaluations and analysis of impacts of measures undertaken was far from comprehensive. Research activities could contribute to minimization of the incidence of physical and mental diseases cases caused by pollution in Europe and we also provided references to more detailed sections of the HERA interim research agenda document connected to the action plan topical fields.
We will follow this Action Plan once a public consultation opens again in end of 2020.