Indicators

The Eighth Environment Action Programme calls for the EU to significantly reduce by 2030 its consumption footprint, i.e. the environmental and climate impacts that result from EU citizens’ consumption. This footprint decreased only slightly, by around 4%, between 2010 and 2020. Therefore, at present, it is uncertain if the EU will achieve a significant reduction in its consumption footprint, especially since it has increased since 2016. Major efforts are needed to both reduce the overall level of consumption and increase the use of products that have less impact on the climate and environment.

The total ecological footprint of the 27 EU Member States and the UK is high and now more than twice the biocapacity available in the region. This high footprint means that the region’s total demand for ecological goods and services greatly exceeds the capacity of its ecosystems to produce useful biological products and absorb carbon emissions. Such a large ecological deficit is detrimental to the environment within and outside Europe.

Land conversion to artificial surfaces impairs the ecological functions of land and makes ecosystems less resilient. In Europe, this conversion takes place primarily in cities and commuting zones. Between 2012 and 2018, the net land take in the EU in these zones was 450 km 2 annually. The land that was taken was mostly croplands and pastures, followed by forests. For the EU to reach its aim of ‘no-net-land take by 2050’ there needs to be significant reductions in the net land take over the years and this seems, at present, uncertain and challenging. It is unclear how the main drivers of land take will change and whether reconverting artificial surfaces to land will increase sufficiently in the future while current projections indicate a likely expansion of built up areas in the coming years.

Birds and butterflies are sensitive to environmental change and can indicate the health of the environment. Long-term monitoring shows significant declines in farmland birds and grassland butterflies. Between 1990 and 2019, the index of 168 common birds decreased by 8% in the 25 EU Member States with monitoring schemes. The decline in common farmland birds over the same period was much more pronounced at 27%, while the common forest bird index increased by 5%. Between 1991 and 2018 the grassland butterfly index also declined strongly, by 25%, in the 17 EU countries with monitoring data.

Monitoring the pressure from soil moisture deficits can warn of potential impacts on plant development and soil health, supporting the assessment of drought-tolerant, resilient and vulnerable ecosystems. In 2000-2019, soil moisture in the growing season was several times below the long-term average in the EEA member countries plus the United Kingdom. The largest soil moisture deficits occurred in 2003, 2017 and 2019, affecting over 1.45 million km 2 in 2019. Soil moisture content was also low in 2012, 2015 and 2018, contributing to increasingly frequent and intense drought pressure.

Between 2015 and 2018, recognition and understanding of the term ‘biodiversity’ increased in the EU, with 71% of those interviewed in 2018 having heard the word and 41% knowing what it means. At least 8 out of 10 consider biodiversity loss a serious problem and agree that halting it is important. The biggest perceived threats are air, soil and water pollution, human-induced disasters and climate change. Although less than a third of respondents have heard of the Natura 2000 network, most agree that protected areas are important and are not willing to trade them for economic development.

Healthy, unpolluted soils provide ecosystem services and protect human health. Soils can become polluted when high concentrations of contaminants are released from a point source (such as industry, waste, landfills and spills). A recent conservative projection estimates that the EU has 2.8 million potentially contaminated sites. Current efforts to monitor and remediate these sites vary markedly across Member States. Therefore, coherent efforts supported by an EU-wide policy are needed to fill gaps and speed up the identification and management of sites in need of risk reduction measures and remediation.

Land take, urban sprawl and economic activities lead to habitat fragmentation, decreasing the resilience of ecosystems. Monitoring fragmentation supports policy actions that aim to ensure remaining habitats can support biodiversity. Fragmentation affects all areas of Europe, even very sparsely populated ones. Moreover, in the EU plus the United Kingdom, 27% of land is considered highly fragmented where habitats are less than 0.02km 2 on average. However, policy measures to protect certain areas seem to be effective in preventing fragmentation, particularly in protected areas.

Ecosystem degradation threatens biodiversity and resilience to climate change, and tackling it is a major goal of EU environmental policy. Vegetation productivity is a key indicator of ecosystem condition and can be used to monitor the effects of climate, land use and land use change. From 2000 to 2016, productivity in Europe showed a regional pattern of increase and decline, driven in part by climatic variation, but most notably by land use change. Agricultural land management and converting land for agriculture drove productivity increases, whereas urban sprawl caused declines.

Climate change has increased forest fire risk across Europe. Even so, the burnt area of the Mediterranean region has decreased slightly since 1980, indicating that fire control efforts have been effective. However, in recent years, forest fires coinciding with record droughts and heatwaves have affected regions in central and northern Europe not typically prone to fires. An expansion of fire-prone areas and longer fire seasons are projected in most European regions, in particular for high emissions scenarios, so additional adaptation measures are needed.

The coverage of ecosystem types — classified under the EU ‘Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services’ (MAES) framework — changed between 2012 and 2018, with urbanisation being the most dominant change process. Newly urban areas increased, while vulnerable and biodiversity-rich ecosystems such as heathlands and wetlands continued to disappear in the EU between 2012 and 2018. Agricultural ecosystems, both grassland and cropland, also showed an overall net decrease, similar to past trends.

At EU level, only 27 % of species assessments have a good conservation status, with 63 % having a poor or bad conservation status. Only 6 % of all species have improving trends. Reptiles and vascular plants have the highest proportion of good conservation status. The EU did not meet its 2020 target to improve the conservation status of EU protected species and habitats. At Member State level, a large proportion of assessments show few species with a good conservation status. Agriculture, urban sprawl, forestry and pollution are the pressures on species reported most.

The atmospheric concentration of GHGs and other forcing agents, including cooling aerosols, reached 477ppm CO 2 equivalents in 2022. This is close to the upper limit of the peak level that the IPCC states peak level 'should not be exceeded if — with a 67% likelihood and not allowing a temperature overshoot — the global temperature increase is to be limited to 1.5 o C above pre-industrial levels'. When allowing for an overshoot, the peak level could be exceeded before 2028. The peak concentrations corresponding to a temperature increase of 2 o C by 2100 could be exceeded before 2032.

Average CO 2 emissions from new vans registered in Europe have fallen steadily in recent years, resulting in an 11% reduction between 2019 and 2023. The main driver of this decrease in emissions is the increase in electric vehicle registrations, which reached 8.2% of the European Union’s new vans fleet in 2023. Almost all vans manufacturers met their binding targets in 2023.

Average CO 2 emissions from new passenger cars registered in Europe have fallen steadily in recent years, resulting in a 28% reduction between 2019 and 2023. The main driver of this decrease in emissions is the surge in electric vehicle registrations, which reached 23.6% of the European Union’s new car fleet in 2023. Almost all car manufacturers met their binding targets in 2023.

The European Union aims to double recycled material use, in terms of its share of the economy's total material use, between 2020 and 2030, as set in the 2020 circular economy action plan. Increasing the use of secondary materials would reduce the extraction of primary raw materials and related environmental impacts. Recycled material accounted for 11.8% of material used in 2023, an increase of 1.1 percentage points from 2010. This slow progress, along with projected increased material demand by 2030, implies that the EU is not currently on track to double the circular material use rate by 2030.

Renewable energy sources represented 24.5% of the European Union’s final energy use in 2023. The share is estimated to have increased by one percentage point since 2022, still largely driven by strong growth in renewable electricity supply. The share is also amplified by a small 2023 reduction in non-renewable energy consumption. Meeting the new minimum EU target of 42.5% for 2030 will demand doubling the rates of renewables deployment seen over the past decade and a deeper transformation of the European energy system.

The European Union’s primary energy consumption (PEC) by end users in 2023 fell by 3.9% compared to 2022 and final energy consumption (FEC) fell by 3.0%. This progress is an improvement compared to historical trends in energy efficiency. The rate of reduction observed in both PEC and FEC over the past three years suggests that the 2030 energy efficiency targets could be achieved, provided that the observed rate of reduction persists through the end of this decade. This also highlights the importance of maintaining decisive action to put the EU on track to meet both the PEC and FEC targets.

European Union legislation has led to significant improvements in air quality. The percentage of urban citizens exposed to pollutant levels above legal standards set in 2004 and 2008 to protect human health fell between 2000 and 2023, especially for particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide. Poor air quality remains a problem. In 2023, 16% and 8% of EU citizens were exposed, respectively, to ozone and benzo(a)pyrene levels above EU standards. World Health Organization guideline values are more stringent than EU legal standards. More than 94% of urban citizens were exposed to unsafe levels of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ).

Eutrophication in marine, coastal and estuarine ecosystems, caused by human activities that introduce excess nutrients into water, lead to harmful effects. To address this, Europe adopted an integrated strategy to reduce inputs. Nutrient levels have significantly declined between 1980 and 2023, yet eutrophication remains a significant problem in the Baltic, Black and Greater North Seas and some coastal areas of the Mediterranean Sea. Over 91-94% of the assessed time-series show no significant change. Progress has been made to reduce nutrient inputs, specifically nitrogen, yet more effort is necessary for phosphorus.