Press Release: Environment: Commission hosts high-level conference on soil and climate change

On 12 June, 2008, the European Commission hosted a high-level conference on the relationship between soil and climate change, and the role of soil management in climate change mitigation and adaptation. Organic matter plays a fundamental role supporting soil fertility, retaining water, sustaining biodiversity and regulating the global carbon cycle. But organic matter is in decline, and the conference heard how large amounts of carbon have been lost to the atmosphere in recent years. The Commission is convinced of the need to act at EU level to protect soil. Members of the European Parliament, the President of the Environment Council and other key players agreed that the role of soil as a repository of carbon must be enhanced. They discussed policy options for achieving this, and advocated the adoption of a Directive on the protection of soil, along the lines of the Soil Framework Directive that was blocked by Council last December.

European Commission: SPEECH/08/326: Soil: an important resource to safeguard http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/08/326&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

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