Guidance on the operationalisation of the minimum environmental requirements and recommendations for EU-funded humanitarian aid operations

In October 2020, the European Commission's Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO) released its approach to reducing the environmental footprint of humanitarian aid ("the approach"), DG ECHO's key contribution to the European Green Deal. The approach states that as an overarching principle, negative impacts on the environment related to humanitarian response should be avoided, and where this is not directly possible, mitigating measures to reduce the potential negative environmental impact should be implemented, applying a precautionary approach. The commitment to reducing the environmental footprint of humanitarian aid now guides DG ECHO's own actions and cooperation with partners. One of the key deliverables of the approach were the minimum environmental requirements and recommendations, officially released at the European Humanitarian Forum in March 2022. They are the result of a collaborative effort with DG ECHO's partners, experts in the field of environment and humanitarian aid, and compile the currently commonly feasible solutions for reducing the environmental footprint of humanitarian assistance, across projects and programmes. The minimum environmental requirements represent criteria partners need to address in a humanitarian response. Partners were encouraged to apply them in 2022, in anticipation of them becoming mandatory as of 2023.