Today, the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE) adopted the Opinion Valuing Nature: Implications for EU Governance. The Opinion was released by the Ethics Advice Mechanism (EThAM), which provides independent ethical advice and policy recommendations to the European Commission and other European institutions.
The Opinion advises on how EU ’policy commitments toward nature can be translated more consistently into decision-making, especially under conditions of ecological interdependence, biodiversity loss, climate instability, systemic risk, and ecological limits.
EGE experts highlight that human societies are not separate from nature but are part of the ecological systems on which they depend. Therefore, the Opinion argues that ecological sustainability is not a secondary objective, but is necessary for Europe’s resilience, prosperity, security, and democratic legitimacy, particularly in a context of geopolitical instability, economic pressure, industrial competition, and social strain.
The EGE recommends that policymakers:
- establish a legal right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment within the EU
- integrate multiple ways of valuing nature explicitly and consistently into policymaking, so that ecological, ethical, social, cultural, and economic considerations can shape decisions
- treat scientifically identified ecological boundaries, and the risks of significant harm as constraints in evaluation, impact assessment, and policy decision-making
- develop and strengthen institutional mechanisms so that ecological concerns, including effects on non-human nature, are adequately considered and accommodated in governance and legal decision-making
- use economic valuation within clear ethical and ecological conditions, so that such tools support wellbeing, resilience, ecological integrity, and multiple ways of valuing nature
- strengthen research, responsible innovation, and institutional learning on valuing nature and on governing human impacts on nature
- strengthen shared responsibilities, ecological literacy, and civic capacities for the protection of nature
- embed early, meaningful, and consequential participation in local, national and EU governance affecting nature.
- ensure coherence between the EU’s internal commitments on nature and sustainability and its external action
Background
This opinion by the EGE is published in the context of the Ethics Advice Mechanism (EThAM), which provides independent ethical advice and policy recommendations to European institutions on any topic where policymaking intersects with the development of science and technology.
The EThAM is led by the EGE, an independent, multi-disciplinary body appointed by the President of the European Commission.
The EGE advises on all aspects of Commission policies and legislation where ethical, societal and fundamental rights dimensions intersect with the development of science and new technologies. It reports to the President, and to the College of Commissioners as a whole, under the direct responsibility of the Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation.
Established in 1991 by President Jacques Delors, the EGE brings together 11 leading thinkers from Europe and worldwide, from the natural and social sciences, the humanities, philosophy, ethics and law.
