EU Member States started coordinating environmental policies in the 1970s and nature was the first area for European action. To this day, the nature directives — the Birds Directive and the Habitats Directive, first adopted in 1979 and 1992, respectively — constitute the cornerstone of the EU’s efforts to protect and preserve biodiversity.
European nature is suffering the consequences of long-term exploitation and pollution. Nature keeps providing us with food, clothes, medicines, housing, energy and other resources, but ecosystems and many plants and animals are in decline, sometimes being pushed to extinction. What are the human activities that harm nature the most and how can we stop and reverse current biodiversity loss?
Monitoring wildlife and habitats plays a key role in expert assessments. We spoke with Petr Voříšek, member of the coordination team of the European Breeding Bird Atlas 2 at the Czech Society for Ornithology, about how such information and data are put together on a European scale and what challenges bird populations face today.
From changes in species habitats and communities to water availability and flowering seasons, climate change impacts ecosystems and biodiversity. We asked Professor Dr Beate Jessel, President of the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, about the links between biodiversity and climate change and what could be done to boost nature’s resilience in a changing climate.
The European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) have recently published the European Maritime Transport Environmental Report (EMTER), which is a joint assessment about the environmental impacts of maritime transport in Europe. We interviewed Stéphane Isoard, Head of group for water and marine topics at the EEA, who was leading the EEA team working on the report.
From carbon neutrality to circular economy, cleaner air to cleaner transport, Europe has set ambitious environmental and climate objectives. Cities, where the large majority of Europeans live, need to play a decisive role in achieving Europe’s sustainability targets. The question is: how can cities become sustainable?
From policy corridors to academic platforms, the world has been talking about global crises: a health crisis, an economic and financial crisis, a climate crisis and a nature crisis. Ultimately, they are all symptoms of the same problem: our unsustainable production and consumption. The COVID-19 shock has only revealed the systemic frailty of our global economy and society with all their inequalities.
Besides providing trusted information on our environment and climate, the European Environment Agency (EEA) is working to improve its own environmental performance as an organisation. We interviewed Melanie Sporer who coordinates these efforts at the EEA, using the EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS).
Achieving sustainability will require fundamental, transformative, and cross-cutting change, entailing major shifts in society’s goals, incentives, technologies, social practices and norms, as well as in knowledge systems and governance approaches.
Adapting to the impacts of climate change is a top priority in the European Union. What is driving cities to implement important measures to mitigate these impacts and make urban centres more resilient and sustainable? We sat down with Ivone Pereira Martins, EEA expert in urban sustainability on what the Agency is doing to help this vital work.
A year into living with COVID-19 and its impacts, Europe continues to put forth policy packages towards its ambitious goals outlined in the European Green Deal. It is essential that Europe stays on course towards its targets and ensures that the Europe of 2050 is a resilient society built on solidarity, providing a healthy environment for all of us.
Our joint Strategy indicates our direction of travel. It introduces a new way of working together and creating knowledge — more agile, more responsive, more pro-active, more actionable — befitting the challenges we will face and the knowledge we will need in the decade to come.
Air pollution, noise pollution and the impacts of climate change are key risks to the everyday health and well-being of Europeans. We talked with Catherine Ganzleben, head of group, air pollution, environment and health, Alberto González, EEA air quality expert, and Eulalia Peris, EEA noise pollution expert to find out more on what the EEA is doing to improve knowledge in this important field of work.
Industrial pollution in Europe is decreasing, thanks to a blend of regulation, developments in manufacturing and environmental initiatives. However, industry continues to pollute and moving towards zero pollution in this sector is an ambitious challenge.
What do many vineyards scattered across idyllic landscapes, industrial sites and landfills have in common? The presence of chemicals might be the answer. From heavy metals to organic pollutants and microplastics, the soil in which we grow our food and the land on which we build our homes might be contaminated with different pollutants. Contaminants are widespread and are accumulating in Europe’s land and soils. How can we tackle this problem?
A simple but powerful idea lies at the heart of environmental laws in the EU: the ‘polluter pays’ principle. This principle has been applied in the form of taxes, fines and other measures, such as quotas for pollutant emissions and the Environmental Liability Directive. We talked to Professor Geert Van Calster about this principle, its benefits and shortcomings.
We can categorise pollution by where we find it — in soil, water or air — or we can look at different pollution types, such as chemicals. Synthetic chemicals are all around us. Some of them, however, can also be very harmful to our health and the environment. How can we limit the negative effects of chemicals that have become a part of our current way of life?
Europe’s air quality has improved significantly over recent decades but pollutants still harm our health and the environment. Measures to limit pollution would improve our quality of life, save money in healthcare, boost workers’ productivity and protect the environment.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), pollution accounts for 1.4 million preventable deaths per year in Europe but the situation is improving and the European Green Deal might be the opportunity to leapfrog towards sustainability. We talked about pollution and health with Francesca Racioppi, Head of the WHO European Centre for Environment and Health.
Many of us are increasingly confronted by noise in our daily lives. Loud cars on the street, a low-flying plane overhead or a nearby train often bring with them annoyance and frustration. However, their impact on our health and environment could be a lot worse than you think.
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