All official European Union website addresses are in the europa.eu domain.
See all EU institutions and bodies
An official website of the European Union | How do you know?
Environmental information systems
The Slovakia country profile provides a concise overview of key trends across three dimensions: environment and climate; socio-economic change; and system change (energy, mobility and food) in the country. It highlights the main developments and challenges in these areas, including measures to support progress towards sustainability in Slovakia. An assessment for each of the three dimensions was prepared by national experts from the European Environment Information and Observation Network (Eionet) in Slovakia, based on 20 established indicators from the EEA or Eurostat.
Slovakia is known for its beautiful nature and rich biodiversity, yet these are threatened by factors like unsustainable agricultural and forestry practices, invasive alien species and climate change. To strengthen biodiversity protection, including the system of protected areas, priorities include completing the zoning of national parks, supporting nature-based measures in forestry and water management, expanding landscape diversity in agricultural land and promoting other biodiversity-friendly farming practices.
Slovakia is currently meeting its climate targets, with electricity generation being highly decarbonised. However, national greenhouse gas emission projections suggest that the country is not on a net-zero pathway, and further efforts are needed to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Nearly half of the Recovery and Resilience Plan budget is allocated to climate goals, with energy efficiency and sustainable transport being key priorities.
Air pollution continues to be a health concern, although emissions of pollutants are decreasing. Expanding wastewater treatment coverage remains a challenge. While waste sorting has improved, municipal waste generation is growing faster than gross domestic product, putting the achievement of landfilling reduction targets at risk. There is a gradual, moderate increase in resource productivity, a decrease in energy consumption and an expansion of the agricultural land under organic farming.
Key trends and assessments
Loading
Summary assessment
The territory of Slovakia is divided into three levels of environmental quality. Positive changes have been achieved, and the share of areas with a disturbed environment has decreased. Currently, .
Total greenhouse gas emissions have dropped by almost 50 % since 1990. Emissions of air pollutants have also decreased significantly. However, in some areas, permitted limit values are still exceeded, particularly for benzo(a)pyrene and particulate matter, which negatively affects public health.
The circular material use rate has increased and is expected to grow further due to new municipal waste separation obligations. Since 2005, resource productivity , although it remains low compared with the EU average.
Forest management is considered sustainable, with the long-term potential to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem stability. However, management in Natura 2000 sites needs to be improved. Levels of sanitary logging – driven by bark beetle outbreaks, windstorms and climate impacts – remain high and this contributes to, among other things, the decline of the capercaillie population and the loss of its habitat. The overall health condition of forests remains a concern.
Despite some improvement in water quality, achieving good status of surface and groundwater bodies remains a major challenge.
Total waste generation has increased but still remains far below the EU average. Nevertheless, the high share of landfilled municipal waste is a persistent issue.
Slovakia has one of the largest Natura 2000 networks, yet biodiversity is still under pressure. In 2023, a nature protection reform, including zoning in national parks, was initiated.
Environmental protection in the context of economic and social progress, protection of life and the health of inhabitants has long been part of the development priorities of Slovak society. National expenditure on environmental protection reached 1.9% of gross domestic product in 2021, which was slightly below the EU average. In the short term, there was a slight decrease in the total amount of this expenditure. Around 70 % of spending on environmental protection is financed by EU funds, well ahead of the state budget (18 %) and the Environmental Fund (10%). Total spending by municipalities and businesses rose in real terms, reflecting growth .
The country has pledged to introduce a fiscally neutral green tax reform. The tax burden will need to be shifted from labour to environmentally harmful activities. Subsidies for domestic electricity generation ended in 2023. This is a positive step to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and local air pollution and improve air quality. Environmental taxes represent approximately 7% of total tax revenue. This share is higher than the EU average.
Slovak society faces challenges in the transition to a circular economy and especially in reducing the share of waste landfilling. For this reason, Slovakia has reformed the landfill tax for industrial and construction waste, introduced a charge for the use of light plastic bags and established a deposit refund system for single-use polyethylene terephthalate bottles and cans. It has also increased air pollution taxes for certain pollutants. The transition to a circular economy is also influenced by the consumption behaviour of the population. Slovakia’s consumption footprint is growing slightly. .
In Slovakia, the current unfavourable situation of energy poverty has worsened recently. Households spend a higher share of their income . One of the tools to solve this problem is Slovakia’s Recovery and Resilience Plan. Supporting energy efficiency and providing sustainable transport are its key priorities. The renovation of 25.000 family houses is expected, .
Loading
The food system
Agriculture in Slovakia is going through a relatively stable period, with priority given to health and consumer protection and food safety at all stages of the food production chain.
There are no national dietary food guidelines in Slovakia. Nonetheless, the consumption of fruit has increased continuously since 2000. So has the consumption of legumes. The overall trend in the consumption of meat is steady, but the consumption of beef is decreasing and the consumption of pork and of . People in Slovakia tend to prefer local food where available, especially in rural areas. The implementation of the EU School Scheme in Slovakia in 2019 led to a notable increase in the . Food waste has become a serious topic, and Slovakia therefore adopted the Food Waste Prevention Plan in 2016, which focuses on reducing the amount of .
Innovations can be seen at the beginning of food systems in some farms; for example, precision farming affects primary production by lowering energy, fertiliser and pesticide consumption. To reduce ammonia emission production, . Their impact is expected to be seen in the coming years.
Slovak agricultural research institutions have engaged in projects on innovative approaches regarding adaptation to climate change, modern livestock breeding, the protection of pollinators .
Similarly to previous years, the total subsidies from both European and national sources represent a significant share in the revenues of companies, and they positively influence the .
Slovakia continues to fulfil the environmental goals set out in international and European legislation, although agriculture contributes only 6% to total . To promote green agriculture in Slovakia, climate-related measures are increasingly used, for example agroforestry systems, eco-schemes and the increase of . In 2023, to address healthy food systems, the government approved the National Action Plan for Development of Organic Production 2023–2027 (NAP) in 2023, .
The energy system
Slovakia’s basic decarbonisation strategy for achieving climate neutrality by 2050 is to have a sufficient resource base for low-emission electricity production, with an emphasis on stable production (nuclear, hydropower and heating plants with renewable fuel) and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through electrification.
The , the (NECP) and the Low-Carbon Development Strategy for 2030, . With regard to the adoption of new EU climate and energy legislation and more ambitious EU goals, the NECP in 2025. The main quantified targets in the NECP update for 2030 are a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of more than 22.7% from sectors not covered by the emissions trading system, and a share of renewable energy sources (RESs) in total consumption of 25% in 2030 (increased from the original value of 19.2% in the NECP from 2019).
The increased volatility of energy prices starting in 2021 led to price compensations for households in 2023 and 2024, which caused significant financial costs. The diversification of energy supplies is under way.
The period until 2030 will be significantly influenced by requirements resulting from EU market design and energy legislation, increased ambitions in RES targets and the ongoing energy transition through the gradual application of new concepts (e.g. prosumers, system integration, energy communities, energy sharing, dynamic price contracts, intelligent metering systems, guaranteed energy services in public buildings).
Slovakia has one of the least carbon-intensive energy sectors in the EU, due to the high share of nuclear sources in electricity generation and the high share of natural gas in heating. An important step towards the decarbonised energy mix was the end of operations of the . In the heating sector, the gradual transition to RESs is under way through the use of biomass, biomethane and geothermal energy, including heat pumps, and there are plans for the use of heat produced from waste and (waste) heat from nuclear power plants in district heating systems. Decarbonisation is achieved mainly through energy efficiency measures, and challenges lie in industry (the steel and metallurgical industry) and transport (railways and heavy goods transport). The use of alternative carriers (e.g. hydrogen) is under development, but progress is slow.
The introduction of the second emissions trading system in 2027 will influence the building and transport sectors, similarly to the gradual transition to efficient district heating systems and use of heat pumps, the transition to zero-emission buildings or the major renovation of public buildings. The current and expected development of RESs and electric mobility will require the timely expansion of robust transmission and distribution systems with a sufficient level of flexible sources and storage capacities.
Meeting the decarbonisation targets including RESs is associated with significant financial costs, and therefore it will be necessary to maximise the use of available financial support mechanisms until 2030 (e.g. European Structural and Investment Funds, the Recovery and Resilience Plan funds, and others).
The mobility system
The Slovak mobility system has so far shown only limited signs of transition. Greenhouse gas emissions from transport continue to grow rapidly and the sector’s growing energy consumption need is met primarily by the combustion of fossil fuels ().
The biggest and fastest-growing emissions are from passenger cars. This is the result of rapid growth in the number of passenger cars, growing mobility, negligible electric vehicle penetration and a fleet age higher than the EU average. The government approved the ; however, its implementation is pending due to the concurrent need to consolidate public finances.
The modal split of passenger transport is dominated by individual transport (79 %), . These trends have not changed in the long run.
The development of freight transport is stable. Its performance has not been improving and its greenhouse gas emissions have not increased either. In 2022, the modal split was . In 2022, to support the modal shift from road to rail, the government adopted the Concept for the .
The greatest progress towards sustainability is in urban mobility. Cities take a number of measures to calm road traffic, such as building park-and-ride parks, introducing general parking charges, reducing speed limits, making urban public transport more attractive (renewing the fleet, digitising the sale of travel tickets, integrating all city transport systems), building cycling infrastructure and providing shared mobility services. The government is building highway bypasses that move transit traffic out of city centres. Use of these bypasses is free of charge. This, together with a faster fleet change in cities, contributes to reducing the share of emissions produced in cities in total transport emissions.
To promote innovations, the government made it compulsory to . The has been adopted, and a National Coordinator of Intelligent Mobility has been established as a one-stop shop and regulatory sandbox for innovative intelligent mobility solutions.
, the government has dedicated EUR 759 million to fund the sustainable transport transition by building electric charging infrastructure, modernising railways, buying new electric trains and trams, building new cycling infrastructure and creating an integrated regional public transport system.
References