Do something for our planet, print this page only if needed. Even a small action can make an enormous difference when millions of people do it!
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?
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.
The COVID-19 pandemic provides a clear example of how fragile our societies and economies can be in the face of a major shock. Environmental degradation and climate change are expected to make such shocks more frequent and more severe. Faced with uncertainty and multiple challenges, our only viable option is to ensure that each decision we take in this critical period brings us closer to our social and sustainability goals.
We know that plastic pollution and plastic waste are a big environmental problem. In recent years, new plastic products have been introduced on the market, claiming to be better for the environment. A recently published European Environment Agency (EEA) briefing assesses their environmental credentials. To find out more, we sat down with Almut Reichel, a sustainable resource use and waste expert at the EEA.
How can we build a more sustainable and resilient world in wake of the coronavirus crisis? In this critical period where key recovery decisions shaping our future will be made, the European Environment Agency will bring together corona and environment-related knowledge and contribute to an informed debate.
The European Environment Agency (EEA) has recently published a report on the 'drivers of change' that impact Europe's environment and sustainability’ prospects. We interviewed the project manager of the report, Lorenzo Benini who works at the EEA as system assessment and sustainability expert.
Earlier this month the European Environment Agency published its ‘European environment — state and outlook 2020 (SOER 2020)’ report. It concluded that Europe will not achieve its 2030 goals without urgent action during the next 10 years to address the alarming rate of biodiversity loss, increasing impacts of climate change and the overconsumption of natural resources. It also offered some key solutions, which would help put Europe back on course to meet those targets. We sat down with Tobias Lung, the EEA’s SOER coordination and assessment expert, to discuss the role of SOER 2020.
The year 2019 will be remembered as a turning point for climate and environment action in Europe. Millions of Europeans and others worldwide have been demonstrating and urging policy makers to take action. Evidence-based scientific assessments, including the European Environment Agency’s state of environment report (SOER 2020), stressed the magnitude of the challenges ahead and the urgent need to act. These calls are now turning into a policy roadmap. The European Green Deal presented by the European Commission is a promising start for the critical decade ahead.
The European environment — state and outlook 2020 (SOER 2020) comes at a crucial time of urgent sustainability challenges that require urgent systemic solutions. The overarching challenge of this century is how we achieve development across the world that balances societal, economic and environmental considerations. Sustainability needs to become the guiding principle for ambitious and coherent policies and actions across society.
What will Europe’s environment look like in 25 years? Will we achieve our common vision of ‘living well, within the limits of our planet’? Will we be able to limit global warming and build climate-resilient cities surrounded by healthy nature? Europeans are increasingly concerned as recent European Parliament elections showed. Europe’s next generation is also calling for urgent action, but how will their demands for a sustainable future shape Europe’s environment and socio-economic policies? On our 25th anniversary, we are reflecting on how Europe’s environmental knowledge and policy have developed in the last 25 years and how we, the EEA together with its networks, can support efforts towards sustainability in the next 25 years.
Plastic waste remains a huge and growing problem. But what is the European Union doing to address the issue? Ioannis Bakas, the EEA’s waste prevention expert gives a brief overview of the EEA’s report on preventing plastic waste in Europe, which was published earlier this month.
Our planet is facing unprecedented challenges to its environment and climate, which together threaten our well-being. Yet, it is not too late to take decisive action. The task might seem daunting but we still have the possibility to reverse some of the negative trends, adapt to minimise harm, restore crucial ecosystems and protect much stronger what we still have. To achieve long-term sustainability, we need to approach the environment, climate, economy and society as inseparable parts of the same entity.
We often take a reliable supply of clean water for granted. We turn on the tap and clean water comes out, we use it and the ‘dirty’ water goes down the drain. For a large majority of Europeans, the water we use at home is of drinking quality and available 24 hours a day. The brief moment between the tap and the drain is only a very small part of its overall journey. Managing water in a city is not limited to public water systems. Climate change, urban sprawl and alterations to river basins can all lead to more frequent and damaging floods in cities, leaving authorities faced with an ever-growing challenge.
Mass-produced plastics were introduced around the middle of the last century as a miracle material — light, mouldable, durable and strong. Since then, the production of plastics has increased rapidly, bringing many benefits to society. Now, some 70 years later, annual plastics production is more than 300 million tonnes, and we have begun to understand the true legacy of these products: they never fully ‘disappear’ from the environment.
The European Commission has recently adopted a package of legal proposals to boost sustainable finance in the European Union (EU). The Commission’s proposals build upon recommendations by the High-Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance, composed of experts from civil society, the finance sector, academia and European and international institutions. We spoke to the European Environment Agency’s (EEA) representative in the Expert Group, Andreas Barkman, who works on strategic advice on climate change and energy issues.
Marine life, the global climate and our economy and social wellbeing all depend on healthy seas. Despite some improvements, our assessments show that the way we currently use Europe’s seas remains unsustainable. Climate change and competition for natural resources add extra pressures on the marine environment. European policies and measures could result in greater improvements when they are implemented through an ‘ecosystem-based management’ approach and are supported by a global ocean governance framework.
To most people the idea of a circular economy remains an abstract if not far-off concept. While ‘going green’ is a growing popular theme around the world, many people are not yet aware of the greater changes to our way of living that will have to be made to ensure a sustainable future, and secure our long-term well-being.
Our climate is changing. We must reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit the rate of climate change, and at the same time, take measures that help us prepare for current and future impacts. Both of these strands of action require unprecedented redirection of investments. This was acknowledged by the climate conferences in Paris and recently in Marrakesh. The finance sector can and will play an instrumental role in supporting Europe’s transition towards a low- carbon, climate-resilient society.
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/sustainability-transitions/articles/articles or scan the QR code.
PDF generated on 19 Apr 2024, 03:45 PM
Engineered by: EEA Web Team
Software updated on 26 September 2023 08:13 from version 23.8.18
Software version: EEA Plone KGS 23.9.14
Document Actions
Share with others