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The EEA's annual work programme 2021, which is structured around the Agency's four strategic areas (SAs) as set out in the Agency's multiannual work programme 2014-2021, established the framework for 2021.
The CAAR is the EEA’s annual report, providing detailed information on the year’s activities, performance and achievements, as well as operational, budgetary and management reporting.
Bathing is an extremely popular and important leisure activity in Europe. This annual assessment of European bathing sites shows how well environmental protection measures are implemented, allowing people to make informed decisions on where to bathe without health risks at 21 551 officially identified bathing sites in the EU as well as 119 in Albania and 189 in Switzerland.
Decarbonising road transport — the role of vehicles, fuels and transport demand
Annual European Union greenhouse gas inventory 1990–2020 and inventory report 2022 Submission to the UNFCCC Secretariat
Influencing consumer choices towards circularity
It is now widely understood that achieving a sustainable Europe will require far-reaching societal change, engaging all areas of the economy and society. The European Green Deal identifies the need for ‘deeply transformative’ policies and actions in the coming decades to put the EU onto a sustainable path. Like the EEA’s 5-yearly report, SOER 2020, it highlights the need to fundamentally transform the production-consumption systems that meet Europe’s demand for energy, food, mobility and shelter. Yet there is also a growing recognition that achieving the EU’s vision of ‘living well, within environmental limits’ will require a deeper transformation of the socio-economic system.
This report analyses data from the Urban Atlas of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service. It focuses on land use changes (land take, soil sealing) and socio‑economic trends in 662 functional urban areas — cities and their commuting zones — in the EU and the UK.
Carbon stocks and sequestration rates in marine and terrestrial ecosystems: a lever for nature restoration
Municipal waste, if not managed properly, is a source of pollution. However, it also contains valuable materials that can be recycled. As in the EU, in the Western Balkan countries municipal waste has been the target of waste policies for several years, mainly aimed at improving waste management. This briefing reviews current waste issues across the region, key initiatives being implemented, and remaining obstacles to preventing municipal waste generation and to its appropriate management.
Municipal waste accounts for 27 % of the total waste generated in the EU (excluding mineral waste). Due to its complex composition and ubiquity, it can have significant negative impacts on human health and on the environment if not managed properly. The 2020 EU Circular Economy Action Plan has established an objective of halving the quantity of municipal waste that is not recycled or prepared for reuse by 2030. At the same time, all EU member states will have to recycle or prepare for reuse at least 60% of generated municipal waste by 2030. This briefing explores how these two targets are linked and how more ambitious waste prevention actions will be key for achieving them simultaneously.
Air pollution is the single largest environmental health risk in Europe, causing cardiovascular and respiratory diseases that lead to the loss of healthy years of life and, in the most serious cases, to premature deaths. This briefing presents the status of concentrations of pollutants in ambient air in 2020 and 2021 by pollutant, in relation to both EU air quality standards and WHO guidelines. The assessment shows that exceedances of standards are common across the EU, with concentrations well above the latest WHO recommendations. Nevertheless, in 2020, lockdown measures adopted to minimize the spread of the COVID-19 impacted on emissions of air pollution from road transport and lead to improved air quality.
Groundwater, making the invisible visible is the World Water Day theme for 22nd March 2022. Groundwater stores almost 1/3 of global total freshwater resources, but pollution may prevent its use. In the EU, groundwater supplies 65 % of drinking water and 25 % of the water for agricultural irrigation. Groundwater pollution is a serious threat to drinking water quality. Once polluted, recovery is not easily achieved because there is no fast way to remove pollutants. This also means that polluting substances can accumulate. Furthermore, groundwater resources are under increasing pressure from water abstraction and climate change. In the EU, 24% of the total groundwater body area was reported in poor chemical status and 9 % in poor quantitative status according to Water Framework Directive 2nd River Basin Management reports in 2016. This briefing provides an overview on the state of the art with groundwater in the EU as contribution to the celebration of the World Water Day in 2022.
Resource nexus assessments analyse the direct and indirect interconnections between different natural resources, their management, use and governance, as well as the synergies and trade-offs that can be generated through policy interventions. By building on the insights provided by a growing body of knowledge and selected case studies, this briefing reflects on the role of the resource nexus in supporting policy coherence and integration in the context of the European Green Deal.
The existing European Union’s (EU) monitoring framework for circular economy was established to track how the EU is transitioning to a more circular economy. To avoid unnecessary added costs and quickly establishing the EU’s monitoring framework, it has been predominantly based on existing data and covers essential elements of the transition. To complement this macro-view on how circular economy progresses in Europe, the European Environment Agency is exploring opportunities to collect new types of data generated for other purposes and, working with other partners, use them to better understand this transformation of Europe’s economy. This briefing provides an overview of four different data types used to prototype new indicators covering different circular economy processes not covered well by data today.
Air quality remains a persistent problem in Europe, continuing to harm health and ecosystems. This briefing reviews the status of air quality plans put in place by countries in situations where air pollution limits are exceeded. It also identifies the sources of air pollutants that lie behind such exceedances. The assessment covers 21 Member States of the European Union , as well as Norway and the United Kingdom . The European level assessment is complemented by case studies providing examples of measures that have led to an improvement in air quality in six European cities.
From the perspective of European consumption, textiles have on average the fourth highest negative life cycle impact on the environment and climate change, after food, housing and mobility. A shift to a circular textile production and consumption system with longer use, and more reuse and recycling could reduce those impacts along with reductions in overall consumption. One important measure is circular design of textiles to improve product durability, repairability and recyclability and to ensure the uptake of secondary raw materials in new products.
Awareness is increasing about the presence of microplastics in our seas, land and air - and their negative effects on ecosystems, animals and people. Microplastics are directly released into our environment or result from degradation of larger pieces of plastic. Wearing and washing of textiles from synthetic (plastic) fibres is a recognised source of microplastics in the environment. Textiles and plastics are among the key value chains identified in the EU Circular Economy Action Plan and are addressed in its implementation.
This briefing discusses the role of environmental taxes through two lenses. The first, by analysing past and current trends for such taxes in terms of their revenue raising performance as well as their foundation for any reform programme that shifts taxes from labour and capital to resource use and environmental pollution. The second by analysing prospects for energy tax revenues in the coming decades, their role as a component of EU decarbonisation policy towards a climate-neutral Union by 2050, and the implications for future tax shifting programmes.
The EU adaptation strategy aims to build resilience and ensure that Europe is well prepared to manage the risks and adapt to the impacts of climate change, including limiting economic losses and other harms. Europe is facing economic losses and fatalities from weather and climate extremes every year and in all regions of Europe. The data on losses and fatalities is not yet collected or reported in sufficient quality across the EU Member States to support policy decisions, however some private companies collect these data. EEA has access to 2 of these private sources with data for 1980-2020: NatCatSERVICE from Munich Re (since 2012) and CATDAT from Risklayer (since 2021).
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/latest or scan the QR code.
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