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Climate change is making each summer hotter, harsher, and more dangerous. This is why we have to radically step up our efforts into climate resilience and adaptation, and nature-based solutions.

‣ Treat fire resilience as strategic investment for our long-term capacity to remain competitive, secure resources, and adapt to climate.
‣ Reduce institutional vulnerability and enhance the Union’s capacity to manage transboundary risks.
‣ Leverage EU monitoring infrastructure for harmonised assessment, strengthening anticipatory governance while reducing crisis-driven responses.
‣ Integrate fire management and risk assessment into spatial and environmental planning and infrastructure development, safeguarding energy systems, transport, water security, ecosystems and rural economies.
‣ Prioritize restoration of burned areas as opportunities for risk prevention and long-term climate adaptation.
‣ Invest in prevention and adaptation, stabilise supply chains, protect carbon sinks and biodiversity, and reinforce capacity to tackle climate risks.

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Polices on climate, nature, agriculture and soils that support the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 (BDS) have indicators (used for the monitoring of their implementation) in common – such as soil organic carbon (SOC) and deadwood indicators. The EU Biodiversity Platform Sub-Group on Monitoring & Assessment (EUBP MA) proposed that a task for 2024, assigned to the European Commission’s Knowledge Centre for Biodiversity (KCBD), would be the “harmonisation of monitoring methods across policy areas” related to the implementation of the BDS. As a starting point on this task, this report presents a semantic interoperability study focused on the linkages, synergies, and differences in reporting requirements on SOC and deadwood indicators across eight different policies relating to climate, nature, agriculture and soil. We identified explicit cross-policy linkages written in the policy documentation in addition to some synergies, and also identified differences in the reporting requirements of these indicators across policies. These differences are related to indicator scope and definition, to the level of detail given for indicator definitions and methodologies, or to the resolution of land use categories, meaning that an indicator measured for one policy may not fit for purpose to be used in another policy having a different purpose. On the other hand, the synergies include the measurement of the same indicator for overlapping land categories across multiple policies, and references to the same wellestablished methodologies. This reflects the overall coherence of EU policies on the area of natural resources. By consulting greenhouse gas inventory reports, we additionally identified instances whereby current methodological choices by certain Member States may not be compatible with the requirements of some of the investigated incoming policies (i.e. policy proposals). The cross-policy linkages that we identified highlight the importance of achieving scientific and technical consistency in the monitoring methodologies used across policies, but also highlight the potential for improving synergy in monitoring and reporting across policies. The differences in reporting requirements for SOC and deadwood indicators and the potential lack of alignment on methodologies identified in this report could provide a starting point for cross-sectoral technical guidance documents or discussions with experts groups aiming to achieve greater harmonisation, simplification and cost-effectiveness of monitoring methods across these policies, particularly in view of the new and revised legislative proposals.

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This is a two page factsheet describing the EUSO’s activities and outcomes in 2025 for:
a) Supporting soil policy
b) EU-wide soil monitoring
c) Monitoring soil health and soil policies
d) Enhancing the functionality of the European Soil Data Centre
e) Supporting soil research and innovation and Supporting stakeholder interactions and soil literacy

Download Factsheet: https://esdac.jrc.ec.europa.eu/public_path//shared_folder/doc_pub/EUSO_ActivityReport2025_Factsheet.pdf

Healthy soils are essential for our society and environment, as they provide many ecosystem services. However, more than 60% of the soils in the EU are currently affected by one or more soil degradation processes and thus hampering the functioning of these soils. Recent EU policy initiatives have been taken to protect and restore soils. The entry into force of the Soil Monitoring and Resilience Directive (SMRD) in December 2025 marked a major milestone. Also, the EU Soil Strategy for 2030 and the Mission Soil are important policy initiatives to safeguard and restore soils in the EU and beyond. Given this context, the EU Soil Observatory (EUSO) is the principal provider of knowledge and data on soils to underpin EU soil policy development and implementation. This report highlights the main activities and outcomes of the EUSO during 2025. In the past year, the EUSO provided support to the legislative process and the implementation of the SMRD, the Mission Soil and the Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming Regulation, and successfully oversaw the European Commission joining the 4 per 1000 initiative. Next, the EUSO Soil Degradation Dashboard and the EU Soil Strategy Actions Tracker, two of EUSO’s tools to monitor respectively the state of soil degradation in the EU and the progress of the actions under the EU Soil Strategy were updated. Furthermore, the European Soil Data Centre, a key part of the EUSO, has grown significantly with 15 new datasets and over 14 000 downloaded datasets in 2025. In addition, in the past year, the EUSO published 55 scientific papers and 10 technical reports, many of which in close collaboration with Mission Soil projects. Finally, the EUSO supported stakeholder interactions and increased soil literacy among society by organising activities such as the 5th EUSO Stakeholders Forum, the Soil Literacy Workshop and several EUSO Working Group activities. Looking forward to 2026, the EUSO will continue taking up its role as the principal provider of data and knowledge to monitor, safeguard and restore soils.

Download the EUSO Annual Bulletin 2025

The directive on soil monitoring and resilience (Soil Monitoring Law) was included in the Official Journal of the European Union (EU 2025/2360) on November 26th, 20225. After water and air, this Directive puts forward the first EU legislation on the soil environmental compartment. The directive establishes a harmonised soil monitoring framework for assessing the health of soils throughout the EU. A harmonised approach implies that standards become important to ensure intercomparability among, and within, Member States. The directive prescribes reference methodologies and requires transfer functions for other methods. The Directive also includes some standards for the monitoring and measuring of soil descriptors based on those being used through the LUCAS topsoil surveys from 2009 to 2022. The present technical report provides an inventory of 574 soil-related standards from international and European standard bodies including the International Organization for Standardisation (ISO) and the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN), as well as standards from other well-recognised international institutions including the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO-GLOSOLAN). There is a need for harmonisation of soil-related standards to ensure consistency and comparability of soil data and to support effective soil management and protection effort.

Download the report: https://esdac.jrc.ec.europa.eu/public_path//shared_folder/doc_pub/JRC144540_01.pdf

Managing soils to increase organic carbon storage presents a potential opportunity to mitigate and adapt to global change challenges, while providing numerous co-benefits and ecosystem services. However, soils differ widely in their potential for carbon sequestration, and knowledge of biophysical limits to carbon accumulation may aid in informing priority regions. Consequently, there is great interest in assessing whether soils exhibit a maximum capacity for storing organic carbon, particularly within organo–mineral associations given the finite nature of reactive minerals in a soil. While the concept of soil carbon saturation has existed for over 25 years, recent studies have argued for and against its importance. Here, we summarize the conceptual understanding of soil carbon saturation at both micro- and macro-scales, define key terminology, and address common concerns and misconceptions.

Loss of soil organic carbon (SOC) from farmland is a key threat to the capacity of soils to provide ecosystem services and exacerbates climate change. In alignment with a published protocol, we conducted a review and meta-analysis of time series of SOC measurements in long-term agricultural experiments to study absolute SOC changes under different agricultural management regimes.

Shifting towards healthy, plant-based diets is widely recognized as a strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from food systems, primarily through reduced methane emissions from livestock. However, the implications of this transition for soil-based GHG emissions, a major contributor to climate change, remain uncertain. We used the MAGNET economic model and the DayCent biogeochemical model to assess the impacts of dietary shifts aligned with the EAT-Lancet guidelines on soil organic carbon (SOC), nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, and the soil GHG balance across the European Union and the United Kingdom. Adopting the EAT-Lancet diet reduced livestock production, organic carbon (C) and organic nitrogen (N) inputs from manure, and permanent grassland areas for agricultural use. This results in potential SOC losses of an EU average of 14 Mg CO2e ha−1 and reaching up to 50 Mg CO2e ha−1 in livestock-intensive regions by 2100. However, afforestation of land released from production could offset approximately half of the diet-induced soil C losses by 2100. When above-ground biomass from afforestation is factored in, this could yield an additional 65 Mg C ha−1 in afforested areas, resulting in net CO2 removal at the European scale. N2O emissions exhibited more moderate and heterogeneous changes by 2100, ranging from 10 to −13 Mg CO2e ha−1 across the continent, and dependent on land use change (LUC) and increased synthetic N inputs. The changes in SOC were driven by LUC, lower organic inputs, soil types and, to a lesser degree, climatic zones. This study's findings underscore the importance of dietary changes in tackling climate change. However, practitioners and policymakers should carefully consider potential soil-related trade-offs by supporting and implementing appropriate soil conservation practices, such as no-tilling or afforestation, to realize the full co-benefits of more sustainable diets.

The Amazon rainforest is crucial for the global carbon cycle, yet annual changes in its aboveground biomass carbon (AGC) stock remain highly uncertain. Natural and local anthropogenic drivers such as deforestation, forest degradation, and regrowth following deforestation interact with large-scale climate variability to determine AGC dynamics. Here, we propose an approach to disaggregate low-frequency passive L-band microwave data over 2010-2020 and reconstruct maps of annual change. We show that the Amazon lost −0.37 ± 0.17 PgC, with gains by undisturbed (0.33 ± 0.13 PgC) and secondary forest growth (0.33 ± 0.05 PgC) outweighed by losses by deforestation (−0.55 ± 0.04 PgC), degradation (−0.42 ± 0.08 PgC), and agricultural areas (−0.06 ± 0.03 PgC). Losses in human-influenced land intensified over time and amounted to 60% of all gross losses in El Niño years. Our study reinforces the need for stronger implementation of policies and effective actions to control forest degradation.

The European Union's strategic agenda for 2024–2029 prioritizes a prosperous and competitive Europe, with soil health potentially playing a role in achieving this goal. However, the current state of European soils is of concern, with over 60 % of soils not in healthy condition, as reported by the European Union’s Soil Mission Board and the EU Soil Observatory. This results not only in environmental issues, but also economic ones, as the costs of soil degradation in the EU are estimated to be higher than €50 billion per year, underscoring the need for soil health to be placed more prominently on the political agenda. Soil-related business models, including biotechnology, remediation of contaminated sites, carbon removals and farming, regenerative agriculture, and agritech solutions, can contribute to EU competitiveness. These business models may help address most of the challenges posed by soil degradation, climate change, and biodiversity loss, while promoting sustainable agriculture practices and improving ecosystem functioning. The EU's soil remediation market is valued at €8.5 billion, with an annual growth rate of 5 %. The EU Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming Regulation provides a framework for certifying carbon removals, with potential revenue of €6 billion per year. Regenerative agriculture, which prioritises soil health and ecosystem services, can increase crop yields, reduce dependency on synthetic fertilisers and pesticides, and promote biodiversity. Agritech solutions, such as precision agriculture and artificial intelligence, can optimize farming practices, reduce costs, and improve environmental sustainability. Here we present the potential of soil-related business models to contribute to EU competitiveness, while addressing environmental and societal challenges. However, a number of challenges remain and need to be addressed as the need for acceleration, a clear policy framework, a closer collaboration of different actors in the food supply chain and a digital transformation are still needed.

Over 60% of European soils are unhealthy according to the Soil Mission board estimates and the indicators presented in the European Union (EU) Soil degradation dashboard. The situation may worsen if no policy interventions are taken. The unsustainable use of natural resources, in particular the degradation of soils, precipitates biodiversity loss, exacerbated by the climate crisis. In particular, in the EU alone, soil degradation costs over €50 billion per year due to the loss of essential services they provide and to the impact on human health. Here a more precise estimation of the soil degradation cost related to a set of soil degradation processes, ranging between €40.9 and 72.7 billion per year is presented. This newly updated estimate compared to the Impact assessment of the Soil Monitoring Law takes into account the costs of soil erosion, contamination, phosphorus losses, soil carbon losses, nitrogen losses, soil compaction, and soil sealing. However, this estimation might double if it is added to the costs of soil biodiversity loss, floods, droughts, off-site effects of soil erosion, and health consequences of soil contamination. Therefore, further research is needed to address this knowledge gap and estimate the missing costs. Soil degradation is a critical issue with transboundary implications that requires urgent attention and action at the EU level. The costs of soil degradation are substantial, both in terms of environmental impacts and economic consequences, highlighting the importance of investing in sustainable soil management practices and a harmonized EU soil monitoring system. By addressing soil degradation through the proposed Soil Monitoring Law, investing significant amounts for research and innovation in the Soil Mission, and promoting international cooperation, the EU can take solid steps toward protecting its soil resources and achieving a sustainable future for all.