The Soil Atlas 2024 illustrates the alarming consequences of global soil degradation while highlighting the immense potential of sustainable and equitable land use practices for climate protection, biodiversity enhancement, and healthy food production.

Healthy soils are vital for climate mitigation and adaptation because they store more carbon than forests. They also retain large amounts of water, helping to buffer against droughts, heavy rains, and floods. Effective climate policies must also respect people’s land rights, as many nature-based carbon removal strategies require extensive land use.

This high-level event, taking place alongside climate COP29, will explore these critical issues from both European and international perspectives, focusing on the necessary actions at the EU level to protect our soils in Europe and beyond. This is particularly salient as a new EU legislative cycle has kick-started and a new European Commission work programme will be unveiled.

Programme

With inputs by:

• Dr. Imme Scholz, President, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung

• Florika Fink-Hooijer, Director-General for Environment, European Commission

• Lena Luig, Head of International Agricultural Policy Division, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, Berlin

• Larissa Stiem-Bhatia, Programme Lead - Nature-based Solutions, TMG Think Tank for Sustainability

• Júlia Dolce, Editor Environmental Justice, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Brazil, and contributor to the Soil Atlas 2024

• Dr. Jes Weigelt, Deputy Director, TMG Think Tank for Sustainability

Panel discussion with:

• Jutta Paulus, Member of the European Parliament, Greens/EFA

• Dr. Imme Scholz, President, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung

• Patrizia Heidegger, Deputy Secretary General and Director for European Governance, Sustainability and Global Policies, European Environmental Bureau

Q&A with the audience

[Heinrich Böll Stiftung Brussels - European Union. Launch of the Soil Atlas 2024. Retrieved 21,10,2024 from https://calendar.boell.de/en/soil-atlas-launch.]