Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

E2: Environmental statistics and accounts; sustainable development

e-mail contact: ESTAT-SDG-MONITORING@ec.europa.eu

The indicator is part of the EU Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicator set. It is used to monitor progress towards SDG 12 on ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns which is embedded in the European Commission’s Priorities under the 'European Green Deal'.

SDG 12 calls for a comprehensive set of actions from businesses, policy-makers, researchers and consumers to adapt to sustainable practices. It envisions sustainable production and consumption based on advanced technological capacity, resource efficiency and reduced global waste.

The 8^th Environment Action Programme (EAP) adopted in March 2022 aims to accelerate the transition to a climate-neutral, resource-efficient and regenerative economy, recognising that human wellbeing depends on healthy ecosystems. Among its priority objectives are achieving climate neutrality by 2050 and restoring biodiversity.

The European Commission adopted the circular economy action plan (CEAP) in March 2020. The EU’s transition to a circular economy will reduce pressure on natural resources and will create sustainable growth and jobs. The new action plan announces initiatives along the entire life cycle of products. It targets how products are designed, promotes circular economy processes, encourages sustainable consumption, and aims to ensure that waste is prevented and the resources used are kept in the EU economy for as long as possible. Building on existing EU policies and legislation, the Circular Economy Package establishes a programme of action with measures covering the whole cycle from production and consumption to waste management. The Package includes commitments on ecodesign, waste prevention and reuse, clean material cycles and ambitious quantitative targets on increasing recycling and reducing landfilling, obligations to improve the separate collection of waste, as well as the promotion of efficient use of bio-based resources.

The consumption footprint (CF) is a set of 16 life cycle assessment (LCA)-based indicators to assess the environmental impacts of consumption patterns of the EU and its Member States, performed by combining data on consumption intensity with an assessment of the environmental impacts of representative products. The CF assessment is based on the combination of: (a) the emissions to air, soil and water as well as the resources used throughout the life cycle of around 165 representative products, belonging to five areas of consumption (food, mobility, housing, household goods, and appliances), (b) the consumption intensities (that is, the consumption per year) of those products, which are calculated based on consumption statistics, and (c) the Environmental Footprint (EF) impact assessment method, which translates emissions and resource consumption into the 16 potential environmental impacts, which it is possible to aggregate into a single score, where deemed convenient. The EF impact indicators can be compared with a set of thresholds that are based on the Planetary Boundaries framework. Thus, a given CF indicator (for example, climate change or marine eutrophication) measures the number of times the impact of consumption has transgressed the associated planetary boundary. As well, the CF single weighted score measures the number of times a weighted boundary has been transgressed. 

planetary boundaries and
per inhabitant

Calendar year.

Indicator from non-ESS source. For assessment of accuracy please refer to the original source (see link to external data source and metadata in “Annexes”).

Joint Research Centre (JRC)

Data source: Eurostat  (cei_gsr010)

Data provider: Joint Research Centre (JRC)

Every year

The indicator is updated annually. 

> T+2 years

New data points are disseminated within 2 years after the reference year.

All EU MS

Data are presented for all EU Member States.

All EU MS

Data are comparable between all EU Member States respectively other presented countries.

> 10 years

Presented time series (including EU aggregates) starts in 2010.

> 4 data points

Length of comparable time series without methodological break is longer than 4 data points.

Analysis of indicator is presented in Eurostat's annual monitoring report on Sustainable development in the EU (progress towards SDGs in the EU context).

see table  sdg_12_31

Eurostat dedicated section on SDGs: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/sdi/overview

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