By 2030, the targets would ensure the restoration of at least 20% of degraded EU land and sea areas. The legislation covers a broad range of ecosystems with specific targets, from forests and agricultural land to urban areas, rivers and marine habitats, with emphasis on restoring those with the highest potential for carbon removal and storage, and for prevention and reduction of natural disasters. Member states will be required to develop Nature Restoration Plans to be assessed by the Commission and to periodically report on their progress toward meeting domestic targets.

Carbon removal is promoted in several aspects of the law, particularly in the way it prioritises the restoration of damaged terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems crucial for storing carbon dioxide, such as peatlands, forests, grasslands, marshlands, heathland and scrub, and coastal wetlands. The Commission considers focusing on damaged and carbon-rich ecosystems to be cost-efficient and critical for climate change mitigation. Indeed, the monetised benefits from carbon storage could outweigh the cost of restoring ecosystems by a factor of six. It is still unclear how the Commission expects to monetise carbon removals through nature restoration, but it has proposed that member states fund their restoration efforts through the EU, national and private sources.

Under the regulation, agricultural ecosystems across member states must achieve an increasing trend in at least two of three indicators: the “grassland butterfly index”, the share of agricultural land with high-diversity landscape features, and organic carbon stocks in cropland mineral soils.

The next important process will be the drafting of Nature Restoration Plans by member states, which will be essential to implement this EU regulation. The first restoration plans are due in August 2026, two years after the law entered into force, and will cover the period until June 2032. By then, member states will need to submit a plan for the period until 2042, and by June 2042 a plan for the remaining period to 2050.

The Commission has also been tasked with submitting a report within one year of the regulation’s entry into force to assess financing measures for its achievement. This report will need to provide an overview of the financial resources available at EU level, based on an assessment of the current funding allocation and an analysis to identify funding gaps.

The regulation also tasks the Commission with reviewing and assessing the implications of the regulation on nature restauration by 2033. Alongside the review, the regulation sets up a process to suspend the implementation of measures related to agricultural ecosystems for up to a year in the event of unforeseeable and exceptional events outside of EU control and with severe consequences for EU-wide food security.

This law adds rigour to the EU’s existing environmental law regime. To date, the efficacy of these schemes has suffered from a lack of targets, deadlines and procedural clarity. The EU has so far failed to meet its voluntary goals as illustrated by the missed voluntary target set by the Convention on Biological Diversity to restore at least 15% of its degraded ecosystems by 2020.

The law will also support gathering data through national Restoration Plans and reports, which will include mapping any agricultural and forest areas that need restoration and highlighting areas of carbon depletion to help fill data gaps on terrestrial carbon flows.

Additionality and the CRCF

It is still unclear how the Nature Restoration Law will intersect with the EU Carbon Removal Certification Framework (CRCF). The Commission has proposed that carbon farming via the restoration of peatlands and other ecosystems be eligible for certification under CRCF. However, the introduction of the Nature Restoration Law will have implications for the additionality rules in the CRCF, which state that carbon removal activities must exceed standard practices and legal requirements to be certified. By changing legalities and norms governing nature restoration, and by extension terrestrial and aquatic carbon-enhancing practices, the Nature Restoration Law might limit which carbon farming projects can be certified under the CRCF.

What are the targets set?

Alongside the EU-wide target of restoring at least 20% of the EU’s land and sea areas by 2030, the Nature Restoration Law sets a suite of other targets and obligations, including the following:

• Member states must put measures in place to restore at least 30% of the habitat types listed in Annexes I and II of the regulation that are in poor condition, which include a range of terrestrial, coastal and marine ecosystems.
• Member states must establish measures to restore at least 60% of habitats in poor condition by 2040 and at least 90% by 2050.
• Member states need to set out measures to reverse the decline of pollinator populations by 2030 at the latest, as well as monitor progress every six years after 2030.
• For agriculture ecosystems, some flexibility has been given to member states when rewetting wetlands. For drained peatlands under agricultural use, restoration targets of 30% by 2030, 40% by 2040 and 50% by 2050 have been set, although some member states have a lower target. Co-legislators agreed that success in rewetting peatlands does not imply an obligation for farmers and private landowners.
• For forest ecosystems, member states are required to put measures in place to enhance biodiversity and contribute to the planting of at least three billion additional trees by 2030 at the EU level.