Various other issues

The online vote is open! As of today, you can help pick the Public Choice Award winner in this year’s European Environment Agency’s (EEA) ‘Well with Nature’ photo competition, which drew a record 5236 entries from across Europe.

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Do you take good photos? Do you enjoy spending time in nature? If your answer is ‘yes’ to both, you might have what it takes to win one of the cash prizes in the European Environment Agency’s (EEA) new ‘Well with Nature’ photo competition. Send us your best shots by 1 October 2022.

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The European Environment Agency (EEA), an agency of the European Union located in Copenhagen, is looking for its new Executive Director to take office in June 2023. The applications for the position are now open. Candidates need, among others, extensive experience in leading large organisations in a dynamic and innovative work environment as well in-depth knowledge about European environmental and climate policies. Applications close on 7 July 2022.

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Endless quantities of dead fish in the Oder hit the media headlines in July and August 2022, making it one of the largest ecological disasters in Europe in recent memory. Two questions followed: what caused the fish to die? And how can such catastrophes be prevented from happening again?

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What is sustainable finance and what role can it play in Europe’s shift to carbon neutrality? We asked the EEA’s lead expert on sustainable finance, Andreas Barkman, to explain what the EU has been doing to ensure that the financial sector plays its part in greening our financial system to support sustainable growth.

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Faced with climate change, soaring energy prices and concerns about security of supply, renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power seem an obvious way forward. What would it take to transform Europe’s existing energy system into one that is based on renewable sources?

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Societies depend in many ways on moving people and goods economically and efficiently from one place to another. International trade gives us access to foreign products and markets. People need ways of going to school, work and other activities. Transport is an essential part of our way of life but, in its current state, it is dependent on fossil fuels and puts serious pressure on the environment and climate.

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The ways in which societies, institutions and citizens relate to and value nature have played a key role in the interconnected biodiversity, climate change, natural resource and health crises we face. This briefing explores how to reframe the relationships between humans and nature. It examines how holistically understanding humans’ deep interconnection with other life forms and ecosystems could lead to new motivations to protect nature and accelerate the societal transformation we need to live well within the limits of the planet.

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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.

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Chemicals are embedded in practically every single manufactured good in the EU. On the one hand, chemicals play a key role in ensuring quality of life and offer new solutions to deliver the green and the digital transitions. On the other, our increasing reliance on chemicals leads to serious problems. From creating adverse health effects to contributing to the climate crisis, chemicals come with a cost — so much so that we have now exceeded the planetary boundary for chemical pollution. Where do we go from here? This briefing describes the systemic use of chemicals across Europe’s current systems of production and consumption. Moreover, it discusses key policy measures foreseen in the European Green Deal’s Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability that offer significant potential to ensure consumer safety, cut pollution and clean up material flows.

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Textiles are on average the fourth-highest source of pressure on the environment and climate change from a European consumption perspective, as shown in previous EEA briefings . Europe faces major challenges managing used textiles, including textiles waste. As reuse and recycling capacities in Europe are limited, a large share of used textiles collected in the EU is traded and exported to Africa and Asia, and their fate is highly uncertain. The common public perception of used clothing donations as generous gifts to people in need does not fully match reality.

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