Publication

Polycrisis. This rather disturbing term has come to be used to describe the current context in which our societies and politics operate. Broadly speaking, polycrisis describes a convergence of economic, social, geopolitical and environmental crises which together create systemic risks to the world as we know it. Regardless of the term itself, the EU's efforts to transition to sustainability now exist within such a context, putting environmental policy implementation under strain and calling for a balance between short-term responses and long-term sustainability goals.

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This briefing describes progress made by the EU and its Member States towards reducing emissions of the five main air pollutants regulated under the National Emission reduction Commitments Directive. It assesses Member State performance against emission reduction commitments for 2020-2029, as well as progress towards meeting more ambitious reduction commitments that will apply 2030 onwards. It also highlights trends for a broader range of air pollutants and their sources in Europe. The briefing is based on the latest data reported by Member States in 2024 for their 2022 emissions.

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The European Environment Information and Observation Network (Eionet) is a partnership network of the EEA and its member and cooperating countries. This briefing presents the results of data collected in 2023 for 12 Eionet core data flows. It summarises the evaluation of hundreds of data deliveries received from reporting countries. The purpose of the briefing is to show progress against agreed reporting criteria (timeliness and data quality), allowing countries to identify and prioritise the resources they need for regular reporting procedures. The provision of high-quality data by Eionet is fundamental for the EEA to achieve its mission to provide timely, targeted, relevant and reliable information to policy-making agents and the public.

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The report looks at air pollutant emissions reported by the EU under the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (the Air Convention) and includes a wide range of substances. These include the five main air pollutants (NOX, NMVOCs, SO2, NH3 and PM2.5) but also others such as heavy metals, black carbon or persistent organic pollutants.

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Countries in Europe have made considerable progress in developing and planning policies to adapt to climate change. However, the pace and scale of adaptation actions needs to increase, as Europe is still not adequately prepared to address the risks posed by climate change. This briefing aims to inspire further adaptation actions across Europe. It presents Climate-ADAPT case studies as a pool of practical examples of implemented adaptation measures. These examples are applicable at different governance levels and policy sectors across European countries and can facilitate peer-to-peer learning.

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