Key messages

Reach a common understanding of what needs to be improved in the environmental risk assessment for plant protection products, such as the need to:

• Overcome the limitations of the current substance-by-substance approach,
• Adopt a more realistic consideration of the environmental context.

Address issues related to improving environmental risk assessment for plant protection products through the related research projects.

Overview

The project seeks to improve the prospective evaluation of the effects of plant protection products on biodiversity by simplifying environmental risk assessments ↗ and enhancing the level of protection. This will be achieved by overcoming the limitations of the current substance-by-substance approach and adopting a more realistic consideration of the environmental context and a more holistic approach. The project will compare current methods with new ones and cross-check both against independent environmental monitoring data.

The project also aims to explore more holistic approaches to risk assessment. This means evaluating environmental risks in a broader context rather than focusing on individual substances in isolation. By doing so, it considers how multiple factors interact under real-world conditions.

In addition, the project will review and refine existing models while developing new ones for risk assessment. It will also create new frameworks for risk characterization, supporting approaches that assess entire systems rather than isolated components.

The main objective of the project is to establish a more effective and efficient way to assess environmental risks by optimizing the use of data, knowledge, and expertise, as well as resources. This will also strengthen collaborations and improve overall risk assessment strategies.

Achievements & Results

Main activities aimed at better describing the challenges and needs for an improved environmental risk assessment of plant protection products:

• Establishing dialogue and connections between various research projects and stakeholders, while also considering publicly available documents.
• Collaboratively defining the term systems-based environmental risk assessment, which encompasses the entire system rather than isolated components.
• Conducting surveys and online workshops to better understand the needs of risk assessors in this field, supporting the transition towards more integrative approaches.

These activities have helped define what needs to change in the environmental risk assessment of plant protection products—“designing the right things”—before implementing the findings in the related research projects to “design things right.”

Policy relevance

The improved regulatory framework for plant protection products will be better aligned with new policy targets, e.g., European Green Deal ↗, the EU “Zero pollution ↗” ambition, and EU and national chemical risk assessment and risk management bodies.