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Water and hydroelectric power
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Although hydroelectric power stations create power from a reusable resource, there are some concerns about their impact on water. They alter the flow and temperature regimes that destroy fish spawning areas, handicap fish migration, kill fish in turbines and dry out wetlands. They can also capture sediment and nutrients behind dams, which can reduce the fertility of the waters downstream and may also increase erosion of river banks. For instance dams have reduced the sediment carried into Lake Geneva by some 50 %.
Climate change could also make many hydroelectric power plants less reliable in future as water availability changes. While some plants in northern Europe could generate more power, hydroelectric dams in Bulgaria, Portugal, Spain, Turkey and Ukraine could reduce output by 20-50 % because of declining rainfall.
Source: State of the Environment Report No 1/2005 "The European environment - State and outlook 2005" (published 29 Nov 2005)
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Climate change
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Multimedia
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European Union emission inventory report 1990–2010 under the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP)
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This document is the annual European Union emission inventory report under the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP). The report and its accompanying data are provided as an official submission to the secretariat for the Executive Body of the LRTAP Convention by the European Commission on behalf of the European Union. The report is compiled by the European Environment Agency (EEA).
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Revealing the costs of air pollution from industrial facilities in Europe
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This European Environment Agency (EEA) report assesses the damage costs to health and the environment resulting from pollutants emitted from industrial facilities. It is based on the latest information, namely for 2009, publicly available through the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR, 2011) in line with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Aarhus Convention regarding access to environmental information.
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Annual European Community LRTAP Convention Emission Inventory 1990-2004
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Water resources across Europe — confronting water scarcity and drought
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This report provides an up-to-date assessment of water resources across Europe.
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Country profile - Drivers and impacts (Finland)
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Country introduction - Main drivers of environmental pressures
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The European environment – state and outlook 2010
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Country assessments
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Finland
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New film on waste management in Greenland
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Dealing with large quantities of unwanted (and sometimes toxic) waste is often difficult – but it becomes even more complicated when people live in isolated communities, in extreme environments hundreds of kilometres from the nearest treatment plant. This is the subject of a new film considering waste management in Greenland, entitled ‘Mission Greenland – for a cleaner future’.
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News
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Energy production by fuel in Eurasia without Russia, 2006, and projections until 2030
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Energy production by fuel in
Eurasia without Russia, 2006,
and projections until 2030
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Data and maps
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Maps and graphs
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Capturing Carbon: A new front in the fight against climate change
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Global warming is one of the biggest issues of our time. To meet the targets set for reducing CO2 emissions, it's widely accepted that new technology will play an important role, sometimes as a "bridging technology", while alternative sustainable energy sources are being developed. One of the most promising technologies is Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). This a means of capturing CO2 from sources such as power plants, compressing the CO2 and storing it away safely in geological formations underground or under the seabed instead of releasing it into the atmosphere.
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Environmental topics
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Climate change
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Multimedia
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European Union emission inventory report 1990–2009 under the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP)
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This document is the European Union emission inventory report under the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP). It includes information on the formal institutional arrangements that underpin the European Union's emission inventory, emission trends for the EU‑27 and Member States, and the contribution of important individual emission sources to total emissions, sector group emission trends for key pollutants, information on recalculations and future planned improvements.
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