Global impacts from European consumption

The 8th Environment Action Programme (8th EAP) calls for a significant reduction in the impacts caused globally due to EU consumption, and aligning them within planetary boundaries. These impacts represent the harm caused by EU citizens' consumption of goods and services on the environmental and climate, irrespective of whether these are produced within or outside the EU.

During 2010 to 2024, the global impacts from EU consumption show some variation, yet the 2024 value is 13% lower than in 2010. The overall trend can be divided into:

(i) a substantial decrease between 2010 and 2016 (-15%) characterised by limited increases in consumption expenditure and high environmental efficiency improvements in goods production, and;

(ii) a subsequent increase between 2016 and 2022 (+20%) when increases in consumption expenditure were substantially higher than any improvements in environmental efficiency.

The 2023 value of the global impacts from EU consumption is 16% lower than in 2022. In that period, the EU had to change its energy supply structure due to the Russian aggression in Ukraine and significantly reduce the consumption of natural gas. Moreover, in 2023 and 2024 we consumed much of the product stock that was created in 2022. These explanations show that the 2023 drop in EU's consumption-based impacts might be temporary.

The domains mainly responsible for the EU’s global impacts are housing, food and personal mobility, which combined, account for around 72% of total impacts. The relative share of each of the main consumption domains barely changes over time from 2010 to 2024, indicating that consumption habits of EU citizens have not substantially changed in the last decade. 

Overall, EU consumption patterns are considered unsustainable as they exceed several of the planetary boundaries for specific environmental impacts, such as climate change and resource use. Key drivers of change in global impacts from EU consumption include:

• the level of consumption expenditure (level of affluence in EU societies);

• the consumption mix (type of goods and services we consume);

• the EU population and changes in the environmental efficiency of production networks (e.g. decarbonisation of energy production).

Reductions in the EU global impacts can be achieved by:

(i) consuming differently, meaning shifting to less environmentally harmful goods and services;

(ii) consuming less, by, for instance extending the life spans of products through circular economy measures;

(iii) scaling up eco-design in new products.

Figure 2 shows the global impacts associated with consumption of the 27-EU Member States and Switzwerland for 2024, compared with 2010, as a single, per capita score. Switzerland shows the highest impacts level and Hungary the lowest, with the difference between them almost threefold.

Only five countries showed an increase in their impacts. With a few exceptions, most countries do not show important changes in their impacts for the period 2010-2022, they show a substantial drop in 2023. Croatia and Romania stand out with increases of more than 30% between 2010 and 2024. However, Finland, Lithuania, Sweden and Luxembourg demonstrate significant reductions, of more than 30%. With the exception of Greece, whose gross domestic product (GDP) also dropped during this period, all other countries registering a decrease in their global impacts show that it is possible to reduce consumption-based global impacts in a growing economy.