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The EU needs a nutrient directive

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment volume 3, pages 287–288 (2022)Cite this article

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The EU needs an integrated nutrient directive that regulates the agricultural application of nitrogen and phosphorus to prevent ecosystem degradation and support the Farm to Fork initiative. This directive must go beyond the current, inadequate regulations by considering nutrient balances and accounting for regional differences.

The long-term use of fertilizers in the European Union and the resulting enrichment of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) has contributed to biodiversity loss and ecosystem disruption, impacting ecosystem services and human well-being. International policies are urgently needed to promote the sustainable application, re-use and cycling of nutrients. The need to make food production more sustainable is recognized by the newly adopted Farm to Fork strategy that — as part of the European Green Deal — calls for the reduction of nutrient losses to the environment by at least 50%, and the use of fertilizers by at least 20% by 2030. To achieve the ambitions of this strategy, additional policies and adequate legislation, such as the nutrients directive that we propose, are required.

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Fig. 1: The proposed nutrient directive compared to existing policies.

References

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank J. and F. Vollenbroek for their valuable comments on the first draft and F. Teunissen for language editing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands

    Martin J. Wassen, Frank Berendse & Jerry van Dijk

  2. Biodiversity, Macroecology & Biogeography, University of Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany

    Julian Schrader

  3. School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Julian Schrader

  4. Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Maarten B. Eppinga

  5. CSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF-CSIC-UAB, Barcelona, Spain

    Jordi Sardans & Josep Peñuelas

  6. CREAF, Barcelona, Spain

    Jordi Sardans & Josep Peñuelas

  7. Faculty of Science, Open University, Heerlen, the Netherlands

    Raoul Beunen

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  1. Martin J. Wassen
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  2. Julian Schrader
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  3. Maarten B. Eppinga
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  4. Jordi Sardans
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  7. Josep Peñuelas
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  8. Jerry van Dijk
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Correspondence to Martin J. Wassen.

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Wassen, M.J., Schrader, J., Eppinga, M.B. et al. The EU needs a nutrient directive. Nat Rev Earth Environ 3, 287–288 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-022-00295-8

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