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The zero pollution action plan is a cornerstone of the EU’s ambitions to improve the well-being and health of citizens and future generations under the European Green Deal. It sets out the vision that by 2050, the EU should have reduced pollution to the extent that it no longer harms human health and natural ecosystems. This is translated into key 2030 targets to speed up reducing pollution at source. The European Environment Agency has produced this zero pollution monitoring assessment to assess progress towards these targets and to support the Commission in the delivery of the long-term vision of a non-toxic environment.
Effective action to curb climate change depends on well-defined and efficient governance systems. An increasing number of European countries have been adopting national frameworks to organise their climate actions, often in the form of climate laws. In some cases, these include dedicated advisory bodies to support policy-making. This briefing summarises key findings from research on the landscape of climate advisory bodies in European countries. It highlights the importance of ensuring the work of such bodies is effective by equipping them with a clear mandate, adequate resources and formally integrating them into regular cycles of climate policy-making, planning and progress monitoring.
This report aims to go beyond theoretical discussions to explore the practical implications of transitions research for policy and practice, building on the insights from past assessments. It highlights the growing links to established EU policy frameworks and identifies how transitions thinking is being operationalised at different scales across Europe. Co-authored by leading experts in transitions studies, the report has also benefited strongly from interactions with EEA partners in multiple policy areas, in particular, at a workshop co-hosted with the European Commission's European Political Strategy Centre in July 2018.
This briefing is based on a range of EEA and Eionet work, and is intended to provide parliamentarians and the European Commission with a selection of key insights on the challenges for environmental sustainability.
This briefing presents progress made by the European Union (EU) and its Member States in meeting the 2010 emission ceilings that remain applicable until the end of 2019 under the Directive (EU) 2016/2284 on the reduction of national emissions of certain atmospheric pollutants (the National Emission Ceilings (NEC) Directive). In addition, it provides an assessment of the projected emissions reported by Member States for 2020 and 2030, in relation to the 2020 and 2030 reduction commitments for each country set in the Directive.
This report analyses the implementation of EU air quality legislation at the urban level and identifies some of the reasons behind persistent air quality problems in Europe's cities. It is produced in cooperation with 10 cities involved in a 2013 Air Implementation Pilot project: Antwerp (Belgium), Berlin (Germany), Dublin (Ireland), Madrid (Spain), Malmö (Sweden), Milan (Italy), Paris (France), Plovdiv (Bulgaria), Prague (Czechia) and Vienna (Austria).
Europe’s border regions and maritime areas, like its Arctic and the Mediterranean regions, are facing negative impacts due to climate change. Countries responsible for these transnational areas are already taking action to adapt to changes in weather and climate extreme events (e.g. increased heat waves or heavy rainfalls). This briefing gives an up-to-date overview of how European countries are working together to adapt to climate change impacts in these shared regions, some of which are considered climate change ‘hot spots’ because they are most vulnerable to dramatic changes.
Information reported to the European Environment Agency (EEA) shows that more than 1 500 national policies and measures have either been adopted, implemented or are being planned in the European Union (EU) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and achieve climate change and energy targets. However, quantitative evidence on the effectiveness and costs of these measures remains insufficiently reported. This briefing presents an overview of the main characteristics of these policies and measures, such as their status, main objectives, type and estimated effects. This information is also made available online by the EEA.
Technical overview of the information reported by Member States under the European Union's climate Monitoring Mechanism Regulation. The 2018 edition of the European Environment Agency (EEA) report National policies and measures on climate mitigation in Europe presents an overview of the information on 1 513 national policies and measures (PaMs) on climate change mitigation reported in 2017 by Member States under the European Union (EU)'s climate Monitoring Mechanism Regulation (MMR). It also takes stock of the progress made at national level to plan, adopt and implement new policies since the 2015 reporting exercise.
This report gives an overview of the EU’s progress towards 29 environmental policy objectives. These are relevant to the achievement of the 7th Environment Action Programme (EAP) three key priority objectives: natural capital; resource-efficient, low-carbon economy; and people’s health and well-being.
This document is the annual European Union (EU) emission inventory report under the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) (UNECE, 1979). The report and its accompanying data constitute the official submission by the European Commission on behalf of the EU as a Party to the Executive Secretary of UNECE.
European Union (EU) water policies encourage Member States to implement better water demand management practices. This is a response to the pressures on water resources that are continuously increasing. Management practices on water demand are being revised to improve the existing supply-demand balance and ultimately to bring about a more water-efficient society.
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.
The report provides an analysis of past, present and future emissions trends under the EU ETS, based on the latest data and information available from the European Commission and Member States. It also analyses the balance between supply and demand of allowances in the market. The report's annexes provide extensive material describing the functioning, scope and cap of the EU ETS.
This report does three things. It provides an overview of market‑based instruments (MBIs) established by EU environmental legislation. Then it explains the established definitions and rationales for the application of environmental taxes and discusses their current design and application in EEA member countries. It concludes with overall findings and some reflections on the potential for long-term tax-shifting programmes in the context of policy targets as well as technological innovation and demographic changes.
The intended audience of this European Environment Agency (EEA) publication is the professional environmental evaluation community, that is, evaluators of European environment and climate policies, the EEA's networks and interested evaluation professionals, including those that are active in the European Environmental Evaluators Network (EEEN). The publication aims to facilitate a dialogue on policy evaluation, by clearly setting out the EEA's views on some of the challenges that evaluators encounter in the areas of environment and climate policy.
A scoping study on the links between public communication, environment policy implementation and behavioural science. In its Multiannual Work Programme 2014-2018, the EEA highlights the need for a transition towards a more sustainable society, fully aligned with the European Union’s 7th Environment Action Programme. This study explores - and aims to develop - the role of public communication to improve the implementation of environmental legislation and to contribute to this debate by bringing communications, environment and behaviour closer. It draws from other EEA work, in particular on consumption and policy evaluation where relevant.
The 2011 Roadmap to a resource efficient Europe states, in its milestone of actions to address land as a resource, that 'By 2020, EU policies take into account their direct and indirect impact on land use in the EU and globally. This report presents a methodology for the assessment of European Union (EU) policies in terms of their land-related implications in Europe and provides an initial testing of the methodology across key EU policies and two in-depth case studies, which focus on Cohesion Policy spending on transport in Poland and Spain.
Analysis of national responses under Article 21 of the EU ETS Directive in 2015
This report focuses on the role of floodplains in flood protection, water management, nature protection or agriculture and the impact of hydromorphological alterations on the ecosystem services that floodplains provide. The aim is to support the implementation of the EU Floods Directive (EU, 2007), in particular with regard to environmental impacts and how these can be linked to climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. It looks at synergies between water management, nature conservation and economic developments both in the field and on policy level.
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/policy/publications/publications_topic or scan the QR code.
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