Archive:Environment statistics introduced
Eurostat, in close partnership with the European Environment Agency (EEA), provides statistics, indicators and further information on environmental pressures and the state of the environment. Providing this data supports the implementation and monitoring of the European Union's (EU) environmental legislation, including its Sixth Environment Action Programme.
The action programme, laid down by the European Parliament and Council of Ministers (Decision 1600/2002/EC of 22 July 2002) is the EU's ten-year (2002-2012) policy programme for the environment.
The programme identifies four key priorities:
- tackling climate change;
- nature and biodiversity;
- environment and health;
- sustainable use of natural resources and the management of waste.
Climate change: The environmental action programme foresees an 8 % cut in greenhouse gas emissions in the period 2008-2012 compared to 1990 levels. Furthermore, the EU adopted its climate action and renewable energy package in December 2008, obliging it to cut emissions to at least 20 % below 1990 levels by 2020.
Nature and biodiversity: The EU has set itself the objective of halting the loss of biodiversity on its own territory by 2010. Its policies include completion of the Natura 2000 network; developing new sectoral biodiversity action plans; paying greater attention to protecting landscapes, the marine environment and soils; and establishing measures to prevent industrial and mining accidents.
Environment and health: The EU strives to engender closer co-operation between the health, environment and research areas. Its policies in this domain include a complete overhaul of the EU’s risk-management system for chemicals, developing a strategy for reducing risks from pesticides, protection of water quality in the EU, noise abatement, and a thematic strategy for air quality.
Sustainable use of natural resources and the management of waste: The EU's policies in this area include increasing resource efficiency and decoupling resource use from economic growth, increasing recycling and waste prevention with the aid of an integrated product policy and measures targeting specific waste streams, such as hazardous waste, sludges and biodegradable 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).
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, the revised Lisbon Strategy and the Sustainable Development Strategy.
A 2007 mid-term review of the Sixth Environment Action Programme was released by the European Commission in April 2007. This confirmed the programme as the framework for EU action in the field of the environment up to 2012.
The data required to monitor this programme are collected in 10 environmental data centers. Whereas Eurostat manages the data centres on waste, natural resources and products, the EEA is responsible for air, climate change and water, biodiversity and land use, while the Joint Research Centre (JRC) is responsible for soil and forestry.
The Statistics Explained articles on environment discuss the main results from several of these areas, but some also explore other topics, often at the borderline between the economy and the environment, such as agriculture and environment, environmental expenditure, and transport and environment.
Further Eurostat information
Dedicated section
See also
Other information
- Environmental data centres
- Sixth Environment Action Programme
- Decision 1600/2002/EC of the European Parliament and Council of 22 July 2002