Indicator Assessment
25 Feb 2020
The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are the largest bodies of ice in the world and play an important role in the global climate system. Both ice sheets have been losing mass at an increasing rate since the 1990s, which has contributed one third of the global sea level rise over this period.
The cumulative ice loss from Greenland from 1992 to 2017 was 3 900 billion tonnes, which contributed approximately 11 mm of the global sea level rise; the corresponding figures for Antarctica are 2 600 billion tonnes, equivalent to a 7 mm contribution.
All studies project further declines in the polar ice sheets in the future, but the degree of uncertainty is large. For a high-emissions scenario, it is estimated that the melting of the polar ice sheets will contribute up to 50 cm of global sea level rise during the 21st century and several metres in the very long term (several centuries to a millennium).
The figure shows the cumulative ice mass loss from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets from recent studies, weighted according to the primary satellite data source following the approach of the Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-comparison Exercise (The IMBIE team, 2018, doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0179-y; The IMBIE team, 2019, doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1855-2). The shaded uncertainty intervals are estimated from the standard deviation of the individual studies.
Electricity generation gives rise to negative impacts on the environment and human health throughout all stages of its life-cycle. To date, power generation remains the largest GHG-emitting sector in Europe. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is by far the most commonly-emitted GHG across the sector, being a product of combustion processes. An almost complete decarbonisation of the EU’s electricity sector is needed in order to meet the EU’s objective of becoming the first carbon-neutral continent by 2050.
Electricity can play an increasing role in decarbonising energy use across a number of sectors, such as transport, industry and households. Information about the carbon intensity of electricity generation is therefore relevant for many stakeholders. The EEA and its European Topic Centre for Climate Change Mitigation and Energy (ETC/CME) produce each year country- and EU-level data on the average annual CO2 emission intensity of electricity generation.
GIS Map Application
13 Feb 2020
These maps present a story about how Europe might be affected by key climate hazards such as droughts, floods, forest fires and sea level rise during the 21st century and beyond. These maps are based on different greenhouse gas emissions scenarios and climate models and have been published already in various EEA reports and indicators.
Dashboard (Tableau)
13 Feb 2020
Designation types describe and classify the legal instruments or other effective means used to achieve the long-term conservation of nature in protected or other conserved areas. European countries designate protected areas under sub-national, national and EU legislation as well as under international conventions and agreements.
The designation types are classified according to three categories (A, B and C) that are linked to the definitions of protected areas and other conserved areas under “other effective area-based conservation measures” (OECMs).
The European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR) is a web-based register established by Regulation (EC) No 166/2006 which implements the UNECE PRTR Protocol, signed in May 2003 in Kiev.
Data Visualization
04 Feb 2020
Indicator Assessment
04 Feb 2020
A significant reduction in the consumption of ozone-depleting substances (ODS) has been achieved by the EEA-33 countries since 1986. This reduction has largely been driven by the 1987 United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Montreal Protocol.
Since the introduction of the Montreal Protocol, European consumption (EEA-28 in 1986) has fallen from approximately 343 000 ozone-depleting potential (ODP) tonnes to around zero in 2002, where it has remained ever since.
The European Union (EU) has taken additional measures to reduce the consumption of ODS by means of EU law since the early 1990s. In many aspects, the current EU regulation on substances that deplete the ozone layer (1005/2009/EC) goes further than the Montreal Protocol. It has also brought forward the phasing out of hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) in the EU.
Copernicus analyses of total ozone column over the Antarctic. The blue colours indicate lowest ozone columns, while yellow and red indicate higher ozone columns. Ozone columns are commonly measured in Dobson Units. One Dobson Unit is the number of molecules of ozone that would be required to create a layer of pure ozone 0.01 millimetres thick at a temperature of 0 degrees Celsius and a pressure of 1 atmosphere. 300 DU corresponds to 3 millimetres of ozone.
Primary energy consumption and linear trajectory levels to reach 2020 targets, 2017 and 2018.
In accordance with the Energy Efficiency Directive (2012/27/EU), the EU Member States have set up national indicative targets that, collectively, should help the EU to reach its 20 % energy efficiency target by 2020. This graph show which countries are in line with, below or above their linear trajectories
The map shows the member countries (EEA-32_2020) and the cooperating countries of European Environment Agency as per 1 February 2020.
GIS Map Application
23 Jan 2020
The map shows the temporal development of the distribution of warm-favouring (Lusitanian) fish species and of cool-favouring (Boreal) fish species by statistical area in yearly intervals, 1967 to 2018.
Many global policy frameworks, including the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),directly and indirectly address land and soil. Many of these SGDs cannot be achieved without healthysoils and a sustainable land use. Below is an overview of the SDGs with strong links to soil.
