Countries' perspectives on SOER 2015 - Resource efficiency cross-country comparison
Synthesis report
- Foreword
- Executive summary
- 1. The changing context of European environmental policy
- 2. The European environment in a wider perspective
- 3. Protecting, conserving and enhancing natural capital
- 4. Resource efficiency and the low-carbon economy
- 5. Safeguarding people from environmental risks to health
- 6. Understanding the systemic challenges facing Europe
- 7. Responding to systemic challenges: from vision to transition
- References and bibliography
- Synthesis report content index
Global megatrends
- Setting the scene
- Diverging global population trends (GMT 1)
- Towards a more urban world (GMT 2)
- Changing disease burdens and risks of pandemics (GMT 3)
- Accelerating technological change (GMT 4)
- Continued economic growth? (GMT 5)
- An increasingly multipolar world (GMT 6)
- Intensified global competition for resources (GMT 7)
- Growing pressures on ecosystems (GMT 8)
- Increasingly severe consequences of climate change (GMT 9)
- Increasing environmental pollution (GMT 10)
- Diversifying approaches to governance (GMT 11)
European briefings
- Agriculture
- Air pollution
- Biodiversity
- Climate change impacts and adaptation
- Consumption
- Energy
- Forests
- Freshwater quality
- Green economy
- Health and environment
- Hydrological systems and sustainable water management
- Industry
- Land systems
- Marine environment
- Maritime activities
- Mitigating climate change
- Natural capital and ecosystem services
- Noise
- Resource efficiency
- Soil
- The air and climate system
- Tourism
- Transport
- Urban systems
- Waste
Cross-country comparisons
- Agriculture — organic farming
- Air pollution — emissions of selected pollutants
- Biodiversity — protected areas
- Energy — energy consumption and share of renewable energy
- Freshwater quality — nutrients in rivers
- Mitigating climate change — greenhouse gas emissions
- Resource efficiency — material resource efficiency and productivity
- Transport — passenger transport demand and modal split
- Waste — municipal solid waste generation and management
Countries and regions
- Albania country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Austria country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Belgium country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Bosnia and Herzegovina country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Bulgaria country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Croatia country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Cyprus country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Czech Republic country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Denmark country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Estonia country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Finland country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- France country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Germany country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Greece country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Hungary country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Iceland country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Ireland country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Italy country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Kosovo* country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Latvia country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Liechtenstein country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Lithuania country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Luxembourg country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Malta country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Montenegro country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- The Netherlands country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Norway country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Poland country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Portugal country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Romania country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Serbia country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Slovakia country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Slovenia country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Spain country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Sweden country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Switzerland country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Turkey country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- United Kingdom country briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Arctic region briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Black Sea region briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
- Mediterranean Sea region briefing - The European environment — state and outlook 2015
Belgium
Flanders: Taking a closer look at resource-efficiency, we noticed that an important goal (especially for Flanders) from the Roadmap Resource-Efficiency was not observed: 'no net land take by 2050'. The purpose is that both LNE (Environment, Nature and Energy Department, Flemish government) and Ruimte Vlaanderen (Spatial Development Department, Flemish government) ensure follow up through the indicator 'use of space' developed by VITO (Flemish institute for technology and research). This indicator is not publicly available yet, but will most likely be available in the near future.
Ireland
In Ireland the Environmental Protection Agency operates the BeGreen programmes which provide homes, businesses and other sectors of society with ways in which they can participate in making Ireland a more sustainable country while saving themselves money. By participating in the programmes we can take action to reduce our use of water, electricity and the waste of resources and generation of excess waste.
- Link to national indicator 1
- Link to national indicator 2
- Other important link (e.g. national SOE website/report)
Italy
The main materials extracted in Italy are non-energy minerals (almost entirely non-metallic minerals) and biomass, while Italy's economic system is dependent on foreign markets for energy and metal ore resources. This strong and growing dependence of the Italian economy on imports places emphasis on the analysis of total (direct and indirect) flows associated with external trade, and thus on the calculation of material flow accounts in raw material equivalents (RME). In 2000 -2010 every kg of product imported by Italy requires, on average, the taking from the global environment of 2.1 kg of resources used. While for every kg of exported product, an average of 3.4 kg of useful resources were extracted, due to the different composition of the goods and services imported and exported (i.e. the predominance of raw products among imports and of semi-manufactured and finished products among exports).
The fall in the domestic final use (GDP + Imports- Exports) during the economic crisis (2007 -2012) is shown by the steady declining in DMC. On the contrary, exported products has grown since 2009 both in monetary and physical terms.
- Link to national indicator 1
- Link to national indicator 2
- Other important link (e.g. national SOE website/report)
Luxembourg
The good result for Luxembourg in Figure 3 is the result of a very high GDP compared to its size and/or its resident population. Moreover, Luxembourg being mostly a "service"/"tertiary" economy, the DMC is rather weak. The briefing refers to the relationship between the total use of material resources and the size and structure of the economy. In the case of Luxembourg, the structure is "service oriented" rather than "manufactured products" oriented.
Poland
Domestic Material Consumption in Poland has increased due to fast economic development, especially in 2011 and 2012 when the majority of planned infrastructural investments were finalised. According to Eurostat, DMC in Poland exceeded 797 million tonnes in 2011 and dropped to 685 million tonnes in 2013. It is expected that this trend (decreasing DMC) will be continued in coming years. As it was mentioned before, the rapid growth of DMC between 2009 and 2012 was caused by investments – particularly in transportation infrastructure, sport facilities (European Football Championship Euro 2012) and environment projects – a significant part of these investments is being completed at the moment.
DMC per capita exceeds 18 tonnes a year (10th position in the EU) and probably will decrease next few years. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/tgm/table.do?tab=table&init=1&language=en&pcode=tsdpc230&plugin=1 Material productivity has improved from 500 USD (ppp) per tonnes in 2000 to almost 1000 EUR (~1300 USD) in 2013, in the same time resource efficiency almost doubled in the last 13 years.
Polish experience shows that the most cost-effective way of improving resource efficiency while reducing emissions is the improvement in the efficiency of generation, transmission and use of energy. Polish potential in this area is huge, at least 30% of current consumption (up to 2030). Over the past 10 years in Poland the energy intensity of gross domestic product fell for almost a 1 / 3 because of thermo-modernization projects (executed under the law on promotion of energy efficiency modernization), upgrading of street lighting or optimization of industrial processes. Besides while in Poland industrial energy intensity was reduced at a rate of 7% per annum, in the EU this was only at a rate of 2.2% per year.
The result of those actions will be shown in the improvements of the economic efficiency and cost optimization. High potential of energy savings is still in the building sector. Promoting energy efficiency in Poland is based on variety of tools, the most important are Thermo - modernization Fund, which in 11 years granted a bonus of nearly 1.1 billion PLN and the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management (the Green Investment Scheme - GIS and priority programs).
The rational use of natural resources and their protection forms the foundations for The National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management. The priority programs include environmental needs, financial capabilities of beneficiaries as well as their needs, but what is most important response to the changing environment. Public consultations and market research as well as the analysis of environmental needs result in the current programs what actually means modern, often innovative, "right-sized" financial products.
Till the end of 2013, seven priority programmes were adopted in the area of energy management in public buildings, energy management in buildings of selected public sector entities, biomass-fired power plants, agricultural biogas plants, upgrading electricity grid for connecting renewable wind energy sources, low-emission municipal transport, energy efficient street lighting.
The content on this page is the sole responsibility of the EEA member and cooperating countries supported by the EEA through guidance and editing.
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Geographic coverage
SOER 2015 cross-country comparisons analyse selected environmental issues across a number of EEA countries. They are part of the EEA's report SOER 2015, addressing the state of, trends in and prospects for the environment in Europe. The EEA's task is to provide timely, targeted, relevant and reliable information on Europe's environment.
For references, see www.eea.europa.eu/soer or scan the QR code.
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