Publications

This report provides a comprehensive yet accessible guide to EEA indicators. It acts as a reference document providing an overview of EEA indicators, placing them in the context of the wider landscape of European environmental indicators. The report highlights the insights that indicators can provide on progress against environmental priorities. In summary, this report explains ‘what we have, why we have it and how it can be used’.

The EU has highlighted the importance of using the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) to prevent the abandonment of high nature value farmland and its intensification as a key action to halt biodiversity decline. The present report sets out to assess whether the current distribution of CAP funds is likely to favour the maintenance of farmland with high nature value (HNV). And it explores the extent to which CAP funds are likely to support the long-term economic and ecological sustainability of these HNV farming systems.

Issued in 1999, the Landfill Directive marked a decisive shift from landfill towards the EU's new waste hierarchy, which prioritises waste prevention, followed by re-use, recycling and recovery, and seeks to avoid landfilling wherever feasible. The Landfill Directive set targets for progressively reducing the amount of biodegradable municipal waste landfilled in the period to 2016. A decade on from the Landfill Directive's enactment seems a fitting time to review progress and extract key lessons for policy-makers in Europe and elsewhere. Through individual and comparative analyses of waste management in five countries and one sub-national region (Estonia, Finland, the Flemish Region of Belgium, Germany, Hungary and Italy), as well as an econometric analysis of the EU–25 Member States, this report seeks to answer a number of important questions, including: To what extent was waste management practice changed in the last decade? How much of the change was due to the Landfill Directive (and other EU instruments)? What measures and institutional arrangements did countries introduce? Which measures and arrangements proved most effective in different national and regional contexts?

This report explores the historical trends, most recent progress and projected future progress on climate change mitigation through reduced GHG emissions, renewable energy gains and improved energy efficiency. It builds upon data reported by the EU-27 Member States, five EEA member countries and nine Contracting Parties of the Energy Community.

This report, building on the experience of both the EEA and Eionet, presents a synthesis of global and European megatrends with illustrations of key emerging trends, wild cards and uncertainties. It aims to inform about on‑going, emerging and potential future developments, raise awareness and contribute to the diffusion of anticipatory thinking.

This short report explains the role of recycling in the green economy and examines the evidence of its contribution in Europe, focusing primarily on the economic benefits that recycling offers.

This report focuses on ways we can use land and ecosystem accounting techniques to describe and monitor the consequences of biodiversity loss in the coastal wetlands of the Mediterranean. These ecosystems are characterised by the close coupling of economic, social and ecological processes, and any accounting system has to represent how these key elements are linked and change over time. This report discusses the importance of estimating the ecological and social costs of maintaining these systems, and the problems surrounding providing monetary estimates of the services associated with wetlands. It also shows how individual wetland socio-ecological systems (SES) can be defined and mapped using the remotely sensed land cover information from Corine Land Cover.

Rationales, building and improving for widening uses to Water Accounts and WISE applications

The Corporate identity manual provides a graphical style guide for EEA reports and online services as well as guidelines for a coherent look of other items produced by the Agency.

Delivering data and knowledge to achieve Europe’s environment and climate ambitions

The European Environment Agency (EEA) aims to support sustainable development by helping to achieve significant and measurable improvement in Europe's environment, through the provision of timely, targeted, relevant and reliable information to policymaking agents and the public.

Signals 2012 brings together environmental issues such as sustainability, green economy, water, waste, food, governance and knowledge sharing. It is prepared in the context of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development — Rio 2012. This year's Signals will give you a flavour of how consumers, forward-thinking businesses and policymakers can make a difference by combining new technological tools — from satellite observations to online platforms. It will also suggest creative and effective solutions to preserve the environment.

Improving air quality in Europe: Signals 2013 focuses on Europe’s air. This year’s edition tries to explain the current state of air quality in Europe, where they come from, how air pollutants form, and how they affect our health and the environment. It also gives an overview of the way we build our knowledge on air, and how we tackle air pollution through a wide range of policies and measures.

Europe's rivers, lakes and seas are under pressure from pollution, over-exploitation and climate change. How can we ensure a sustainable use of this vital resource?

We cannot live without healthy land and soil. It is on land that we produce most of our food and we build our homes. For all species — animals and plants living on land or water — land is vital. Soil — one of the essential components of land — is a very complex and often undervalued element, teeming with life. Unfortunately, the way we currently use land and soil in Europe and in the world is not sustainable. This has significant impacts on life on land.

Why do we need decisive action now to protect nature? What is at stake and how can we tackle the biodiversity crisis?

This briefing is based on a range of EEA and Eionet work, and is intended to provide parliamentarians and the European Commission with a selection of key insights on the challenges for environmental sustainability.