ABSTRACT
The European Union, which I have represented in a range of different functions over a period of 40 years, has been actively involved in the definition of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 2015. This therefore requires an assessment of present EU policies with regard to their sustainability. The continued rapid rise in world population has highlighted the limits of our planet: human activity is responsible for the rapid loss of biodiversity, the acceleration of climate change and the profoundly uneven distribution of wealth and use of the planet’s resources. The planet is not on a sustainable path, nor are the EU’s own policies. The way we produce meat and milk with imported animal feeds is an additional environmental pressure on forestry ecosystems in the rest of the world and hence a substantial contribution to accelerated climate change. Agriculture is a major drain on our water resources and the quality of our soils. It is also one of the significant sources of air pollution in the form of fine particles, such as ammonia and nitrogen. The SDGs, adopted at UN level, require more decisive actions to halt the raging environmental destruction and growing social injustice than can be achieved through awareness raising alone. And we need change urgently! We need to hold our local and national governments and the EU itself to their promises made at UN level for a sustainable future.
