EP ENVI and FEMM committees send strong signal for financing health protection from climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution

This week, two important committees in the European Parliament – ENVI (Environment Climate and Food Safety) and FEMM (Women’s Rights and Gender Equality) – adopted their opinion for an upcoming European Parliament resolution on A revamped long-term budget for the Union in a changing world.  

This resolution aims to set the EP’s priorities for EU financing for the next budget cycle 2028-2034, the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).  

HEAL welcomes that ENVI and FEMM MEPs bring forward ambitious and much-needed recommendations to protect health from the triple crisis of pollution, climate change, and biodiversity loss, which threatens people’s health like never before – and rightly prioritise zero pollution as a cross-cutting objective for the next EU budget. 

Everyone is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, but some are more at risk than others, including pregnant women, children, the elderly, those already ill, and people facing socio-economic inequalities.  

The body of evidence on how women’s health is at risk keeps increasing, for example from exposure to hazardous chemicals which interfere with the body’s hormone system. In the 2023 summer, the heat mortality rate for women was 50% higher than for men.  

We commend ENVI and FEMM MEPs for supporting  

1. Including financing for zero pollution action as a goal in the next EU budget. ENVI and FEMM MEPs want to see the next MFF include preventing and reducing pollution while addressing climate change and biodiversity loss. This approach will ensure a policy coherence in EU financing.  
2. Mainstreaming zero pollution objectives, ensuring the next MFF pursues ambitious and dedicated funding for climate, zero pollution, and biodiversity objectives and targets across the board and through all spending programs. 
3. Adequate funding for health risk mitigation and research, calling for funding for initiatives that mitigate health risks linked to climate change and air pollution. ENVI and FEMM MEPs also want to see continued support for research on the health and economic burden of pollution, and the science-to-policy uptake. 
4. Phasing out of EU fossil fuel subsides.  ENVI and FEMM MEPs want an end to all environmentally harmful subsidies, including fossil fuel subsidies, in line with achieving climate neutrality by 2050, reinvesting in pollution reduction. 
5. Scaling up climate adaptation efforts, prioritising measures that protect the most vulnerable thanks to health-protective investments in key health-determining sectors, such as energy, transport, agriculture, industry, and urban planning. 

As a next step, the EP’s Budget Committee, the leading committee on the resolution, will vote on 23/24 April. It will then go to plenary for the week of 5 May. 

We now look to the BUDG Committee to integrate these priorities into the next MFF, ensuring that the post-2027 MFF will drive health-protective and climate-resilient public spending.  

This is essential to strengthen preparedness, and the health burden of pollution and climate change. Ensuring the continued EU financing for climate, biodiversity and zero pollution action will be beneficial first and foremost for people who are most at risk.