Moving towards sustainability in times of multiple crises and uncertainty

Europe is recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, faced with a war in Ukraine and committed to ambitious goals of the European Green Deal for protecting the climate, nature and people’s health. ‘EEA Signals 2022 – Staying on course for a sustainable Europe’ provides a snapshot of the Agency’s assessment and data that are linked to this context and making Europe’s energy system more secure and sustainable.

The ‘EEA Signals’ is a based on a series of short articles based on previously published EEA data, information, and expert interviews. 

EEA Signals 2022 editorial and articles look at the state of play in the energy sector, moving towards more renewables, saving energy and links with the transport sector. Jorge Cabrita, research manager at Eurofound, discusses the concept of ‘just transition’ and tells about Eurofound’s work towards that goal. Eva Mayerhofer, lead biodiversity and environment specialist at the European Investment Bank, Andreas Barkman, and EEA’s lead expert on sustainable finance, tell about the challenges and opportunities in accelerating Europe’s green transition through sustainable financing.

Building a sustainable energy system for Europe requires time, and the decisions that we take now will define our options for decades to come. This is especially true for expensive energy infrastructure. Given the current circumstances, Europe needs to react quickly but also in the right direction to avoid lock-ins on solutions that are not compatible with what we want to hand over to future generations.

Hans Bruyninckx, EEA Executive Director (See Editorial)

The ‘EEA Signals’ is an annual, easy-to-read web publication, that looks at key issues related to the environment and climate. Recent EEA Signals reports have looked at nature (2021) pollution (2020), soil (2019) and water (2018).