The Campaign
When nature loses, we all lose.
The air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, the safety of our homes – all depend on strong environmental laws. Right now, those protections are under attack. Once they’re gone, we hand the keys of our future to those who see nature only as a resource to exhaust.
In the EU, environmental laws are being gutted, under the promise of “simplification” of the legal system. But in reality, these changes will only profit greed, while endangering the lives of us and our children.
What this means
Nature and people are one, the damages inflicted on nature will make its way to us. Here’s how:
Water you can’t trust
Loosened controls for pollution from industrial farms, factories, and products could end up in rivers, groundwater, and our food, meaning higher health risks.
Air you shouldn’t breath
Continuous deforestation, weaker limits on harmful chemicals and emissions mean more smog, allergens, and toxins in the air, which can affect our lungs, heart, and overall health.
Your taxes cleaning up their mess
If polluters aren’t required to clean up their pollution, bills land on us.
Climate impact hitting harder
Destroying natural buffers like wetlands, forests, and dunes removes natural defences against floods, heatwaves, and storms.
Losing the nature we love
Once our forests, rivers and habitats are destroyed, they can never be replaced. Gone will be the safe, green spaces where we recharge and reconnect.
Our Demands
What we ask of EU decision makers is simple:
Keep current environmental safeguards fully intact
Existing nature laws are delivering proven results. They require no fixes, only political will for full implementation and enforcement. Leave them intact.
Reject any attempts to dilute environmental protections
These regulations are essential to preventing irreversible damage and safeguarding the public interest. Any weakening would endanger not just our ecosystems, but also our health, well-being, and ultimately, our future.
Respect scientific evidence and the citizens’ voice
Environmental laws are grounded in decades of research and have delivered measurable success. They are the product of democratic processes and public demand. European citizens are calling for stronger protection of nature, not greater exposure to harm.
Faced with today’s triple crises of climate breakdown, biodiversity loss and pollution, we have no choice but to ensure that environmental laws, our biggest safety net, remain strong. History will remember those who chose to gamble our future away.
The laws under threat
Nature is under attack. Not in one big blow, but through chipping away at one vital law at a time. Once lost, these protections rarely return. See where our defenses are being stripped away.
Big = nature laws; Small = pollution laws
Pink = at risk; Orange = possibly at risk; Green = not at risk.
Net-Zero Industry Act
The NZIA aims to boost EU clean manufacturing and industrial competitiveness. It sets production targets, streamlines permitting, grants “priority status” to strategic projects, and updates rules for procurement, auctions, and financing.
It supports a range of net-zero technologies:
- Widely backed: solar, wind, batteries, electricity grids
- But also more controversial and harmful: nuclear, CCUS, biomethane, CO₂ transport and use.
Why It Matters Now
While streamlining permits (e.g., one-stop shops, online access) can improve efficiency, its application to high-risk or environmentally sensitive technologies could:
- Undermine environmental safeguards
- Increase risks to human health and ecosystems
Nature Restoration Regulation
The Nature Restoration Regulation (NRR) is the EU’s first binding law to restore degraded ecosystems on land and at sea. It is a key part of the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the European Green Deal.
With over 80% of Europe’s habitats in poor condition, the law sets clear, time-bound targets and requires Member States to create National Restoration Plans. By improving ecosystem health and resilience, it aims to reverse biodiversity loss while supporting well-being, food security, and long-term prosperity.
Why It Matters Now
Weakening the NRR would have serious consequences:
- Continued degradation of wetlands, forests, rivers, and marine ecosystems
- Loss of vital ecosystem services: pollination, water and air purification, flood protection
- Threats to rural livelihoods and soil health if agricultural restoration targets are reduced
- Setbacks for the EU’s 2050 climate neutrality goal, as carbon-rich ecosystems like peatlands and forests are crucial for climate mitigation
Water Framework Directive
This crucial law, and related directives of priority water pollutants, are the backbone of EU water policy. The WFD, in particular, protects and restores inland, coastal, and groundwater ecosystems while ensuring clean, safe water for people. Its aim is to prevent water deterioration and achieve “good status” for all waters by reducing pollution and restoring our degraded rivers, lakes and wetlands.
River Basin Management Plans are the main tool to balance water uses for both nature and communities.
Why It Matters Now
Weakening the WFD or its daughter directives – through exemptions, delayed action on harmful substances like glyphosate or PFAS, or reduced controls to prevent pollution or destruction- would:
- Increase pollution and habitat degradation in rivers, lakes, and wetlands
- Accelerate biodiversity loss and risk ecosystem collapse
- Raise public health risks and reduce access to safe drinking water
- Drive up future healthcare and remediation costs
In addition, the EU has just adopted a new plan to become more water resilient to be able to better cope with climate change impacts that we often feel through water such as more frequent and extreme floods and droughts. Weakening the WFD that is the foundation of the EU Water Resilience Strategy will be counterproductive and short sighted.
Environmental Impact Assessment Directive
The EIA Directive ensures that major public and private projects – like energy, transport, waste, and infrastructure – are evaluated for their environmental and health impacts before approval.
It promotes:
- Transparency and public participation
- Science-based decision-making
- Protection of biodiversity, water, air, soil, climate, cultural heritage, and health
High-impact projects must undergo full assessments, while others are screened to support sustainable development and safeguard people and nature.
Why It Matters Now
Weakening the EIA Directive by reducing its scope, limiting public input, or easing project screening would:
- Accelerate habitat loss and reduce climate resilience
- Increase pollution, flooding, noise, and toxic waste risks
- Limit public participation, undermining democratic oversight and preventing challenges to harmful projects
EU Deforestation Regulation
The EUDR is the world’s first law aimed at stopping global deforestation. It prevents products linked to deforestation from being imported into or sold in the EU and requires companies to ensure their supply chains are deforestation-free.
This regulation is key for the EU to meet its climate and biodiversity commitments.
Why It Matters Now
- The law has already been delayed by 12 months, and a further delay is being discussed right now
- Political pressure risks further delays or loopholes that could weaken its impact
- The changes currently under discussion would weaken the law to the point of making it meaningless, undermining global efforts to stop deforestation
Learn More
- Was it produced legally? Understanding and applying the ‘legality requirement’ in the EU Deforestation Regulation
- Analysis of EUDR compliance costs – Profundo
- Traceability & Transparency – AidEnvironment
- Trase and ClientEarth provide guidance on using geospatial data to enforce and comply with the EUDR
REACH
Proposed in June 2025, the Chemical Omnibus suggest to weaken chemical protections by:
- Ending the requirement to report hazardous substances in products (e.g. toys, furniture, electronics)
- Abolishing the SCIP database, which informs consumers and waste handlers of where dangerous chemicals might be
- Lowering cosmetic safety standards by allowing exceptions for chemicals linked to cancer or infertility, and removing minimum label readability rules
The upcoming REACH revision also risks prioritising “simplification” over safety, potentially weakening chemical oversight.
Why It Matters Now
- Increases everyday exposure to hazardous chemicals for consumers and workers
- Reduces transparency and public access to safety information
- Weakens legal safeguards, leaving dangerous substances insufficiently controlled and putting health and the environment at risk
Industrial Emissions Directive
The IED regulates emissions from some of the EU’s most polluting industries, which account for 20% of air and water emissions and 40% of greenhouse gases. Revised in 2024, “IED 2.0” requires covered installations to prepare transformation plans for achieving a clean, circular, climate-neutral economy by 2050, and to implement Environmental Management Systems to drive continuous environmental improvement.
Why It Matters Now
Delivering on IED 2.0’s potential depends on monitoring and transparency. Mandatory reporting of pollutants and chemicals is essential to track progress and hold industries accountable.
Weakening these requirements would undermine climate and environmental goals, prolong harmful emissions, and compromise significant health and nature benefits.
Learn More
Birds & Habitats Directives
The EU’s Birds Directive protects all wild birds – especially threatened and migratory ones – by banning harmful activities and creating protected areas.
The Habitats Directive safeguards over 1,000 species and 230 habitat types, requiring strict controls and assessments of economic activities to maintain favourable conservation status.
Together, these laws are the oldest EU laws. Over more than three decades of conservation, species like the white-tailed eagle, beaver and large carnivores have made remarkable comebacks, and the Natura 2000 network now protects over 18% of EU land and 10% of seas. These successes show that binding rules and stable funding work for nature.
Why It Matters Now
If these laws are weakened – by shrinking the list of protected species and habitats, adding loopholes, or giving exemptions to businesses – nature will pay the price:
- Higher extinction risks for species already in decline
- Loss of ecosystem services worth €238 billion/year
- Undoing decades of conservation progress
- Setbacks for EU climate goals, as many habitats are crucial carbon sinks and protect us from floods and fires
Nitrates Directive
The Nitrates Directive is a cornerstone of EU water and environmental policy. It aims to prevent nitrate pollution from agriculture (fertilizer and manure) and promote good farming practices, particularly by setting a 170 kg nitrogen per hectare per year limit for livestock manure application. This threshold acts as a safeguard by indirectly limiting animal densities (the number of animals per unit of area) in intensive farming systems.
By reducing nutrient runoff, this law helps achieve the environmental objectives of the Water Framework Directive (WFD), protects rivers, lakes, coastal waters, and groundwater from eutrophication (when too many nutrients in water cause algae to grow out of control, reducing oxygen in water and kill fish and other aquatic life), and supports broader EU goals on climate resilience and ecosystem health.
Why It Matters Now
The European Commission has proposed amendments allowing an additional 80 kg of nitrogen from processed manure per hectare, raising the total above the current 170 kg limit. The proposal raises is done without any proper impact assessment, or public consultation.
Potential impacts to human health and nature if this law is weakened includes:
- Greater nutrient runoff can compromise drinking water quality, increasing health risks and remediation costs.
- Higher manure application increases nitrate pollution, accelerating eutrophication in rivers, lakes, coastal waters, and groundwater.
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Regions with high livestock densities risk further exceeding safe nutrient levels, threatening biodiversity and ecosystems.
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The proposal undermines the transition to agroecological practices and plant-based diets, which are necessary to halve nutrient losses by 2030.
Click on a law to learn more