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The 8th Environment Action Programme urges the European Union to significantly reduce its consumption footprint, i.e. the global environmental and climate impacts of EU residents’ consumption. Global impacts from the EU’s consumption showed some variation during 2010-2022, yet the 2022 value increased by 4% since 2010. Rising trends over the past three years indicate challenges ahead in the effort to reduce these impacts in the near future. Consuming differently, consuming less and focusing on product eco-design are effective strategies to reduce environmental impacts of consumption.
Figure 1. Global impacts of EU consumption aggregated in a single score (million points), divided into consumption domains from 2010 to 2022
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 the consumption of goods and services by EU citizens on the environmental and climate, irrespective of whether these are produced within or outside the EU.
Figure 1 displays the global impacts from EU’s consumption over time in a single score. During 2010 to 2022, these impacts show some variation, yet the 2022 value is 4% higher than that in 2010. The overall trend can be divided into: (i) a substantial decrease between 2010 and 2016 (-23%) characterised by limited increases in consumption expenditure and high environmental efficiency improvements in goods production, and (ii) a subsequent increase between 2016 and 2022 (+35%) when increases in consumption expenditure were substantially higher than any improvements in environmental efficiency.
The domains mainly responsible for the EU’s global impacts are housing, food and personal mobility, which together account for around 70% of total impacts. The relative share of each of the main consumption domains barely changes over time during 2010 and 2022, indicating that the 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.
Looking to the future, the last three years have seen a continuous and sharp increase in the global impacts from EU consumption. If this trend continues, the EU will face serious challenges in achieving its aim of significantly reducing it's global impacts by 2030.
Figure 2. Global impacts from EU countries' consumption in 2010 and 2022
Figure 2 shows the global impacts associated with the 27 EU Member States' consumption for 2022, compared with 2010, as a single, per capita score. Switzerland shows the highest impacts level and Slovenia the lowest, with the difference between them being twofold.
Fourteen countries registered an increase in their impacts, while an equal number showed a decrease. With a few exceptions, most countries do not show important changes in their impacts for the time period in question. Spain, Sweden and Denmark stand out with increases of more than 30% between 2010 and 2022. However, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg and Finland demonstrate significant reductions, of more than 15%. With the exception of Greece, whose gross domestic product (GDP) also dropped during this period, the remaining 13 countries registering a decrease in their global impacts show that it is possible to reduce consumption-based global impacts in a growing economy.