Archive:Environment statistics introduced

Eurostat, in close partnership with the European Environment Agency (EEA), provides statistics and further information on environmental pressures and the state of the environment. This data supports the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the European Union's (EU's) environmental policies, strategies and initiatives, including its sixth environment action programme (EAP).

Sixth environment action programme

The action programme, laid down by European Parliament and Council Decision 1600/2002/EC of 22 July 2002 is a ten-year (2002-2012) policy programme for the environment. It identifies four key priorities:

tackling climate change;
nature and biodiversity;
environment and health;
sustainable use of natural resources and the management of waste.

In order to implement the sixth EAP, the European Commission adopted seven thematic strategies: air pollution (adopted in September 2005); marine environment (October 2005); the prevention and recycling of waste (December 2005); the sustainable use of natural resources (December 2005); urban environment (January 2006); soil (September 2006); and the sustainable use of pesticides (July 2006). The data required to monitor the sixth EAP are collected in ten environmental data centres. Eurostat manages the data centres on waste, natural resources and products, while the EEA is responsible for air, climate change, water, biodiversity and land use, and the Joint Research Centre (JRC) is responsible for soil and forestry. Each strategy follows an in-depth review of existing policy and wide-ranging stakeholder consultation. The aim is to create positive synergies between the seven strategies, as well as to integrate them with existing sectoral policies and the sustainable development strategy.

Sustainable development strategy

Several environmental indicators have been chosen as sustainable development indicators (see the article on statistics for European policies) for the assessment of the progress achieved towards the goals of the sustainable development strategy. Examples of environmental headline indicators are the common bird index as an indicator for natural resources and greenhouse gas emissions by sector as an indicator for climate change and energy. Several others are used as indicators for sustainable consumption and production, public health, climate change and energy, sustainable transport, natural resources, and global partnership.

Europe 2020 - Europe's growth strategy

At the European Council meeting of 26 March 2010, EU leaders set out their plans for a Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. The strategy includes three targets specifically related to the environment and climate change: greenhouse gas emissions 20 % lower than 1990; 20 % of energy from renewables; 20% increase in energy efficiency. As part of the sustainable growth priority one of the flagship initiatives concerns a resource-efficient Europe. The aims are to help decouple economic growth from the use of resources, support the shift towards a low-carbon economy, protect biodiversity, increase the use of renewable energy sources, modernise the transport sector, and promote energy efficiency. In the context of this initiative, several key proposals have been adopted by the European Commission.

In March 2011 a ‘Roadmap for moving to a competitive low carbon economy by 2050’ (COM(2011) 112 final) was adopted. This roadmap describes a cost-effective pathway to reach the EU's objective of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 80-95 % of 1990 levels by 2050. Based on the cost-effectiveness analysis undertaken, the roadmap gives direction to sectoral policies, national and regional low-carbon strategies and long-term investments.
In September 2011 a further building block in this initiative was adopted in the form of the ‘Roadmap to a resource efficient Europe’ (COM(2011) 571 final). This builds upon and complements the other initiatives under the resource efficiency flagship, in particular the policy achievements towards a low carbon economy. It sets out a vision for the structural and technological change needed up to 2050, with milestones to be reached by 2020, proposing ways to increase resource productivity and decouple economic growth from resource use and explaining how policies interrelate and build on each other.
An ambitious new strategy to halt the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services in the EU by 2020 was adopted in June 2011. The 'EU 2020 Biodiversity Strategy' (COM(2011) 244 final) is built around six main targets and 20 actions to help Europe reach its goal. Biodiversity loss is an enormous challenge in the EU, with around one in four species currently threatened with extinction and 88 % of fish stocks over-exploited or significantly depleted.
A new strategy to secure and improve access to raw materials was adopted in February 2011 titled ‘Tackling the challenges in commodity markets and on raw materials‘ (COM(2011) 25 final). This is focused on the fair and sustainable supply of raw materials from international markets, fostering sustainable supply within the EU, and boosting resource efficiency and promoting recycling.
A ‘Roadmap to a single European transport area – towards a competitive and resource efficient transport system’ (COM(2011) 144 final) was adopted in March 2011 – see the article transport introduced.
In November 2010 the initiative ‘Energy 2020 a strategy for competitive, sustainable and secure energy’ (COM(2010) 639 final) was adopted, defining energy priorities for a period of ten years. In March 2011 the ‘Energy efficiency plan 2011’ (COM(2011) 109 final) was adopted: energy efficiency is considered to be one of the most cost effective ways to enhance security of energy supply and to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. See the article on energy introduced for more information.

The integrated economic and employment guidelines, first combined in 2008, were also revised as part of the Europe 2020 strategy. Guideline 5 concerns improving resource efficiency and reducing greenhouse gases.

Initiatives on water and waste

The development of a '2012 Blueprint to safeguard Europe's waters' was endorsed by the President of the European Commission on the occasion of World Water Day on 22 March 2010. The Blueprint is intended to combine a stocktaking of the achievements of the Water Framework Directive (policy assessment) with an analysis of the policy needs in the water domain for the years to come. Work on the proposed blueprint is still ongoing and may well create new data needs with respective implications for water statistics.

In January 2011 the European Commission published a review of the thematic strategy on the prevention and recycling of waste. While noting that overall recycling rates had increased, the amount of waste going to landfill decreased, and the use of hazardous substances had been reduced, the review indicated that the amount of waste produced had continued to rise in many Member States. Concerning waste statistics, the usability and policy relevance of the Waste Statistics Regulation of 2002 was improved by Regulation (EU) 849/2010. It has entered into force in 2010 and will be the basis for the collection of data in 2012. Eurostat's Environmental Data Centre on waste is a major source for data and background information on waste generation and management in the EU, presenting statistics for key waste streams by waste category and by economic activity and treatment method, such as recycling and disposal.

Further Eurostat information

Dedicated section

Environment

External links