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The world is entering a period of growing water scarcity: by 2030, global demand for fresh water could outstrip supply by more than 40 % if water is used in the same way that it is today. These stark figures are the background to a new report from the International Resource Panel, a group of natural resources experts hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme.
In less than two months, world leaders will gather in Rio de Janeiro for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development. It is 20 years since the last Rio conference, and Rio 2012 is an opportunity to assess the progress made toward sustainable development since 1992 and begin building a Green Economy.
Climate change is already evident in Europe. Across the continent, policy makers are starting to respond to current and future impacts and risks associated with rising temperatures, changing precipitation, melting glaciers, ice and snow, rising sea levels, and more frequent and intense floods and droughts.
Consumption of products and services impacts the environment in many different ways. For example, the things we buy contribute, directly or indirectly through the product lifecycle, to climate change, pollution, biodiversity loss and resource depletion in Europe and other regions.
European governments could simultaneously reduce income tax, increase innovation and cut pollution by introducing well-targeted environmental taxes and recycling the revenues back into the economy. This was one of the findings from a pair of reports on environmental tax reform (ETR) published today by the European Environment Agency (EEA).
Europe’s impact on the environment is still very much linked to the economy. This message was clear in many of the reports and datasets published by the European Environment Agency (EEA) in 2011, as analysts were able to clearly see a decrease in various emissions and types of environmental damage during the 2009 recession.
A new way forward has been agreed upon in Durban, South Africa, after two weeks of climate change negotiations. The European Union welcomed the agreement from the COP17 climate conference as a breakthrough in the fight against climate change.
Recycling has multiple benefits for many areas of the economy – providing raw materials, creating jobs and encouraging business opportunities and innovation. These economic benefits of recycling are examined in a new report from the European Environment Agency (EEA). The report considers the recycling industry in the context of building a 'green economy', a major European policy objective.
Offshore wind energy capacity in Europe is projected to increase 17-fold between 2010 and 2020, while newer renewable technologies such as concentrated solar power and wave/tidal power will also increase more than 11-fold according to projections. European countries are also expected to significantly boost solar photovoltaic power, onshore wind and other renewable technologies over the next decade.
It is "virtually certain" that warm weather extreme events will become more frequent this century, according to a new summary report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 18 November. In order to explore ways of adapting to heatwaves and other extreme events potentially exacerbated in future by climate change, the IPCC has brought together a range of scientific and professional expertise.
Air quality in Europe has improved between 1990 and 2009, as emissions of most pollutants have fallen, according to a new report from the European Environment Agency (EEA). But there is still a lot of room for improvement, as many EU countries are expected to exceed the emissions ceilings in 2010 for at least one pollutant. In addition, concentration levels of ground-level ozone and particulate matter have remained stable over recent years despite efforts to improve air quality.
As we prepare for a future yet unwritten, a cascade of uncertainty presents itself - the future structure of our society and economies is uncertain; the environmental changes that may result are uncertain; and how we might react or adapt to such environmental changes is also uncertain. Against the backdrop of these and many other uncertainties, long-term analysis can help create more robust environmental policy and the space for innovative thinking.
Today, the European Commission launched its proposals for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) after 2013. The key objective is ‘to strengthen the competitiveness, sustainability and permanence of agriculture throughout the EU in order to secure for European citizens a healthy and high-quality source of food, preserve the environment and develop rural areas’. The proposals tie financial support more closely to environmental goals.
Resource efficiency is a policy priority for Europe. However, across the region there are many different approaches to ‘doing more with less’, as shown by a survey of countries’ policies, carried out by the European Environment Agency (EEA).
The European Union remains well on track to achieve its Kyoto Protocol target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions despite a 2.4 % emissions increase in 2010, according to first estimates by the European Environment Agency (EEA). The 2010 increase follows a 7 % drop in 2009, largely due to the economic recession and growth of renewable energy generation.
Government ministers and delegates from 53 countries agreed to extend the European network for sharing environmental information across the pan-European region. The commitment was made at the seventh Ministerial Environment for Europe summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, which concluded today.
The budget is one area where governments can influence our interaction with the environment – encouraging beneficial behaviour, and discouraging environmental destruction. As a conference on environmental fiscal reform opens at the European Environment Agency (EEA), we consider the potential for using financial carrots and sticks to improve the environment.
Roads, motorways, railways, intensive agriculture and urban developments are breaking up Europe’s landscapes into ever-smaller pieces, with potentially devastating consequences for flora and fauna across the continent, according to a new joint report from the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN). The report, 'Landscape fragmentation in Europe', demonstrates how areas of land are often unable to support high levels of biodiversity when they are split into smaller and smaller parcels.
Ministers will meet in Astana, Kazakhstan, today to discuss water issues and greening the economy at the seventh 'Environment for Europe' Ministerial Conference, running from 21 - 23 September 2011. To support the Conference, the European Environment Agency (EEA) is launching an innovative Assessment of Assessments report, which recommends ways that environmental information and policy making can be more closely aligned.
A series of maps on water quality, updated with the latest information reported by countries, has been published by the European Environment Agency (EEA). The maps display water quality parameters in various receiving waters across Europe, alongside information on urban wastewater treatment and receiving areas sensitive to eutrophication.
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/sustainability-transitions/news/news or scan the QR code.
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