Publications

Building a Shared Environmental Information System with the Eastern Neighbourhood: The analysis presented in this synthesis report has streamlined the information requirements of six countries and their capacities to put solutions in place to meet these requirements.

The intended audience of this European Environment Agency (EEA) publication is the professional environmental evaluation community, that is, evaluators of European environment and climate policies, the EEA's networks and interested evaluation professionals, including those that are active in the European Environmental Evaluators Network (EEEN). The publication aims to facilitate a dialogue on policy evaluation, by clearly setting out the EEA's views on some of the challenges that evaluators encounter in the areas of environment and climate policy.

Human health and well‑being are intimately linked to environmental quality. This has been recognised for decades amongst policymakers in Europe, and most recently appears as a cornerstone in the European Commission's proposal for the 7th Environment Action Programme. This report, produced jointly by the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), outlines a number of environmental issues with a direct influence on people's health and well-being and is a follow-up and update to the 2005 EEA/JRC report.

Reliable, relevant, targeted and timely environmental information is an essential element in implementing environmental policy and management processes. Such information can come in many formats — with indicators being a long-established approach to distilling detailed information into trends that are robust and easily understandable by a broad audience.

Natural resources and human well-being in a green economy. This report extends the analysis of the green economy, focusing on the environmental pressures associated with resource use patterns and their impact on human health and well-being. Mapping the diverse connections between environmental change and human health impacts involves considerable conceptual complexities, and relies on a relatively fragmented evidence base.

Environmental impacts of production-consumption systems in Europe. This report provides another perspective on the green economy transition, addressing the global value chains that meet European demand for goods and services. In doing so, it goes beyond previous reports and analyses to address the global dimension of Europe's economic activities. This perspective is highly relevant because European production and consumption systems rely heavily on imported resources and goods.

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 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 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 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.

The report presents an updated assessment of the population exposed to high levels of environmental noise and the associated health impacts in Europe, based on the new World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations. The report also documents actions being taken to manage and reduce noise exposure and reviews the progress made towards meeting policy objectives. The evaluation of the status of exposure to environmental noise in Europe is based on the latest data collected under the Environmental Noise Directive (END). The report also describes other relevant issues, such as inequalities in exposure to environmental noise as well as impacts on wildlife.

A study in integrated environmental and economic analysis. This report, prepared within the broad framework of EEA work on environmental accounts, presents and describes the tool of environmentally extended input-output analysis and illustrates its potential uses. The report aims to: present the tool of environmentally extended input-output analysis of EE-IOT and assess its potential for answering key SCP policy questions; make use of the tool and the latest data available in Europe to identify the environmental 'hotspots' and leverage points in European consumption and production; and identify weaknesses and potential for improvement in the current application of the tool.

The European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR) ensures public access to information on pollutant releases to the environment from Europe’s largest facilities. Updated E-PRTR data have recently been published by the EEA, including information on pollutant releases to the environment from some 33 000 facilities in Europe for the period 2007-2016. This briefing, based on updated E-PRTR data for 2016, presents information on heavy metal releases to air and water. It applies an eco-toxicity approach (USEtox model) to illustrate spatially the combined environmental pressures on Europe’s environment caused by releases of the selected pollutants.

The EEA's annual environmental statement report for 2021 conforms to requirements stipulated in the EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) Regulation (2). It contains information on the EEA's environmental management system (EMS), its environmental performance in the year 2021, and the updated environmental targets and an action plan for 2022. The EEA has published an annual environmental statement on its website since 2009.

The EEA′s annual environmental statement report for 2022 conforms to requirements stipulated in the EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) Regulation and takes into account the sectoral reference document for the public administration sector. The report contains information on the EEA′s environmental management system (EMS), its environmental performance in the year 2022, and the updated environmental targets and an action plan for 2023.

Although environmental tax reforms (ETR) tend to improve incomes across society, they can have mild regressive impacts in that richer households gain more than poorer ones. Care is needed to design ETRs in ways that ensure that certain groups are able to benefit equally. ETR's overall benefits for the economy, environment and society are potentially significant. ETR should therefore be regarded as a key element in the policymaking toolkit for shifting to a green economy.

Environmental policy instruments are frequently characterised as obstacles to economic activity but environmental taxes can, in fact, be the opposite — serving as catalysts for the creativity that underpins thriving economies.

This report does three things. It provides an overview of market‑based instruments (MBIs) established by EU environmental legislation. Then it explains the established definitions and rationales for the application of environmental taxes and discusses their current design and application in EEA member countries. It concludes with overall findings and some reflections on the potential for long-term tax-shifting programmes in the context of policy targets as well as technological innovation and demographic changes.