Growing resistance to environmental initiatives in Europe will likely continue beyond the 2024 EU elections amid the rising popularity of right-wing parties, portending less ambitious climate targets and greater economic protectionism through the end of the decade. EU member states and conservative lawmakers in the European Parliament are reportedly slowing and weakening new EU environmental legislation, most recently trying to undermine rules that would slash the use of chemical pesticides in agriculture. The Sustainable Use of Pesticides Regulation, which would force EU countries to collectively halve the use and potential toxicity of chemical pesticides in agriculture by 2030 and promote more environmentally sustainable farming practices, faces opposition from both the center-right European People's Party in the European Parliament and from a number of EU countries including Austria, Hungary and Poland .