Every summer, European holiday resorts fill up with tourists eager to enjoy the warmer weather and the beautiful natural surroundings of this diverse continent. For many, the summer vacation is synonymous with swimming in the sea or in a lake, so it is natural that water quality is an important factor in choosing a destination. To help citizens make informed choices, the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Commission publish the annual European bathing water quality report. The information contained in this edition - which covers bathing water quality in 2016 in the EU Member States, Albania and Switzerland - indicates where good quality bathing water is likely to be found in 2017.
The EUNIS habitat classification is a pan-European, comprehensive and widely accepted classification of all habitat types. The increasing need to support European policy on nature conservation with harmonised habitat descriptions, condition estimates and change assessments underpinned by field data led to the initiation of an extensive review of the classification.
This briefing gives an overview of the EUNIS habitat classification and revision process of its terrestrial part through alignment with the European Vegetation units. The focus is on heathland, scrub and tundra habitat types.
Analysis of national responses under Article 21 of the EU ETS Directive
The objective of this paper is to give a snapshot of the key GHG emission estimates which are regularly published by EU bodies.
There is a light update of the paper every year in May as a joint effort of the four institutions involved: DG Climate Action of the European Commission (DG CLIMA), the Joint Research Centre (DG JRC), Eurostat (Eurostat), and the European Environment Agency (EEA) – who coordinates the final product.
Noise pollution poses a high risk to human health. This briefing presents updated estimates of the numbers of people exposed to environmental noise pollution in Europe. It also provides a new summary of the measures being used in Member States to manage noise. Road traffic remains by far the most important source of environmental noise: at least 100 million people are exposed to levels of traffic noise that exceed the European Union’s indicator of noise annoyance.
Addressing climate change requires a globally
coordinated, long-term response across all economic
sectors. The 2015 Paris Agreement provides the
framework for limiting global warming to less than
2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and for
pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Early
in this process, the European Union has adopted
ambitious and binding climate and energy targets
for 2020 and 2030. Member States have set the
strategic objective of building an Energy Union, which
aims to provide affordable, secure and sustainable
energy (European Council, 2014) and which has a
forward‑looking climate policy at its core (European
Council, 2015).
The most recent package of legislative measures,
adopted by the European Commission in November
2016, aims to consolidate and match national climate
and energy efforts, and facilitate the delivery of
the 2030 targets for climate, energy efficiency and
renewable energy sources (RES).
This report provides information about progress in RES
in 2014 at the EU, country, energy market sector and
RES technology levels.
Statement of revenue and expenditures
Municipalities across Europe increasingly acknowledge the need to adapt to climate change and have begun to adopt various measures. Meeting the costs of adaptation measures for climate change is, however, a major challenge. Municipalities have found innovative ways to overcome that challenge and have started implementing measures. These solutions could be relevant for other cities, towns and smaller municipalities too, and examples are collected and
presented in this publication as an inspiration. It offers insights into lessons learned on the ground regarding the most successful approaches, the difficulties encountered and overcome and the key success factors
in financing local adaptation action.
This report sets out the logic for identifying the
implications of Global Mega Trends at the national,
regional or European level, and aims to provide
inspiration to EEA member and cooperating countries
to undertake their own national studies. It describes the context and the reasons why understanding global trends is important, and sets out
a suggested methodology for doing so.
This report is an indicator-based assessment of past and projected climate change and its impacts on ecosystems and society. It also looks at society’s vulnerability to these impacts and at the development of adaptation policies and the underlying knowledge base. This is the fourth ‘Climate change, impacts and vulnerability in Europe’ report, which is published every four years. This edition aims to support the implementation and review process of the 2013 EU Adaptation Strategy, which is foreseen for 2018, and the development of national and transnational adaptation strategies and plans.
Expanding the knowledge base for policy implementation and long-term transitions
This report provides a summary of the quality of petrol and diesel used for road transport in the European Union under the requirements of the Fuel Quality Directive (FQD), based on the information reported by Member States for 2015. EU Member States must sample fuels each year and analyse technical characteristics of petrol and diesel fuels sold in their territories to ensure that they are consistent with the requirements of the FQD.
The European Environment Agency (EEA) is supporting the Commission in the monitoring of the CO2 performance of passenger cars and vans, according to the European Regulations (EC) 443/2009 and (EU) 510/2011.
The report ‘Prevention of hazardous waste in Europe – the status in 2015’ is the third in a series of annual reviews of waste prevention programmes in Europe as stipulated by the Waste Framework Directive. EU Member States are obliged to adopt waste prevention programmes, while EEA is invited to carry out review on their completion and implementation.
The EEA’s new report ‘TERM 2016: Transitions towards a more sustainable mobility system’ assesses the progress European Union Member States are making to improve the environmental performance of transport in line with related EU policy targets. The report also looks at the big changes underway in the sector, from emerging technologies like electric and driverless cars, or recent practices that have caught on, like shared or on-demand online mobility services for commuters. The report stresses that transport activity in the years ahead will continue to put pressure on the environment if action isn’t taken to make transport sustainable.
Data reported by companies on the production, import and export of fluorinated greenhouse gases in the European Union.
This report examines if the EU and its immediate neighbours are on target to achieving by 2020 the three thematic priority objectives (natural capital; resource efficiency and low carbon economy; health and well-being) of the 7th Environment Action Programme. It does that with the help of a set of selected indicators and other information. The report also highlights the role of eco-innovation and green finance to enable meeting aspects of the resource efficiency and low carbon economy priority objective.
Land take, or the change from non-artificial to
artificial land cover, reflects on-going and often
conflicting claims on land. Some of the land that
is 'taken' for urban development is covered with
an impervious surface, which severely hampers
ecosystem functioning and the related delivery of
ecosystem services. However, when land is 'recycled',
land that was developed in the past and has become
available for redevelopment again is reused. Urban
densification, or infilling, can also prevent the
consumption of land that may be very valuable for
food production or recreation.
In this report, the processes of recycling and
densification are jointly referred to as 'land recycling
in its broad sense'. Land recycling can be considered
a response to the on-going pressures we as a society
apply to our land resources, particularly in the urban
fringe.
This report was developed in cooperation with the European Environment Information
and Observation Network (Eionet) — a partnership network of the EEA and its member
and cooperating countries involving more than 1 000 experts and 350 national
institutions across Europe.
Drawing on evidence collected from across the network, the report represents an initial
attempt to explore what the concepts of sustainability transitions and transformations
mean in practice, and how the EEA and Eionet can help develop the knowledge needed
to support systemic change in Europe. Case studies are used to explain and illustrate
key concepts and to give a sense of what activities are already under way at local levels.
The report concludes with reflections from the EEA's Scientific Committee and Executive
Director, which provide further insights into the new knowledge needs and the potential
role of the EEA and Eionet in responding to them.
The 2016 edition of the annual EEA report, Trends and projections in Europe, provides an updated assessment of the progress of the EU and European countries towards their climate mitigation and energy targets.
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