The European Environment Agency provides sound, independent information on the environment for those involved in developing, adopting, implementing and evaluating environmental policy, and also the general public. In close collaboration with the European Environmental Information and Observation Network (Eionet) and its 32 member countries, the EEA gathers data and produces assessments on a wide range of topics related to the environment.| www.eea.europa.eu
We communicate our work through a wide range of external activities and channels, targeting different audiences — policymakers, journalists, researchers, youth and the wider public. If you want to know more about our latest activities and outputs, see our press releases linked to on our assessments, read our feature articles for short insights into our work, follow our events relevant to your topic of interest or sign up to our newsletter to stay informed.| www.eea.europa.eu
The monitoring and outlook assessment, published jointly by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre and the EEA, serves as regular bi-annual check-up on the progress of Member States in achieving the EU’s zero-pollution targets. This second edition will also inform future policies designed to support the zero-pollution ambition — to reduce pollution to the extent that it no longer presents a risk to human health and the environment by 2050.| www.eea.europa.eu
Just under 240,000 deaths per year in the European Union can be attributed to exposure to fine particulate matter, a key air pollutant, according to the latest European Environment Agency (EEA) air quality health impact assessment published today as the new EU rules enter into force. The latest data also confirm, yet again, that Europeans remain exposed to air pollutant concentrations considerably above recommended World Health Organization (WHO) levels. A separate assessment also found that ...| www.eea.europa.eu
This briefing is part of the Air quality in Europe 2024 package and examines how vegetation is exposed to key air pollutants. It is based on data reported by the EEA’s member countries in 2022 and complemented with interpolated maps. The briefing supports the EU’s Ambient Air Quality Directive and the zero-pollution action plan (ZPAP).| www.eea.europa.eu
This briefing quantifies the latest estimated impact on population health caused by long-term exposure to three key air pollutants: fine particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide and ozone. The foreseen benefits of achieving improved air quality are also highlighted.| www.eea.europa.eu
A vision of the EU in its strategy on sustainable and circular textiles is to move away from fast fashion towards better and longer-lasting products, with more reuse and recycling. This briefing helps fill data and knowledge gaps on the circularity of the textiles value chain to support policies targeted towards reducing the environmental and climate impacts of textiles.| www.eea.europa.eu
EU policymakers have recently decided to introduce a direct ban on the destruction of textiles and footwear with some exemptions for small, micro and medium-sized companies. In this briefing, the EEA provides an overview of what is currently known about the volumes and destruction of returned and unsold textiles in Europe. The growth of online shopping, flexible return practices, changed consumer preferences and fast-fashion business strategies in Europe have resulted in increased shares of r...| European Environment Agency
Plastics are essential in society. Yet value chains are unsustainable — generating emissions and increasing waste and pollution. Reducing such impacts demands moving towards a circular and sustainable plastics system. This briefing covers plastics production and consumption in Europe, the impacts on the environment and climate change, and how we can shift to a circular economy for plastics. Work from the Circularity Metrics Lab on plastics (EEA, 2024a) and a report on the Circularity Metric...| European Environment Agency
Air quality is steadily improving across Europe with most air pollution monitoring stations achieving current EU annual limits for some of the most harmful air pollutants. However, additional measures to improve air quality, especially in cities, will be required to fully meet current EU standards as well as recently agreed future air quality standards by 2030, according to the European Environment Agency (EEA) air quality data analysis for 2023 and 2024 published today.| www.eea.europa.eu
Air pollution has reduced steadily across Europe over recent decades, yet it remains the region’s largest environmental health risk, causing diseases, lowering quality of life and leading to preventable deaths. The EU has set air quality standards to reduce risks posed by air pollution. This report presents analysis of the latest official 2023 and 2024 reported concentrations in Europe against current and future (2030) EU limit values and against the stricter World Health Organization guide...| www.eea.europa.eu
Renewable energy sources represented 24.5% of the European Union’s final energy use in 2023. The share is estimated to have increased by one percentage point since 2022, still largely driven by strong growth in renewable electricity supply. The share is also amplified by a small 2023 reduction in non-renewable energy consumption. Meeting the new minimum EU target of 42.5% for 2030 will demand doubling the rates of renewables deployment seen over the past decade and a deeper transformation o...| www.eea.europa.eu
The EEA brings together scientific knowledge and expertise, with the aim of providing vital analysis and data to help develop, implement and evaluate a large number of European policies and legislation , with a particular focus on the European Green Dea l . Our policy corner links a selection of EU policies we support with relevant EEA knowledge.| www.eea.europa.eu
The vast majority of bathing water sites in Europe met the European Union's most stringent ‘excellent’ bathing quality standards in 2023, according to the latest annual bathing water assessment published today. This represents 85% of Europe’s popular bathing waters. As much as 96% of all officially identified bathing waters in the EU met the minimum quality standards, with only 1.5% rated as ‘poor'.| www.eea.europa.eu
Europe’s rich array of biodiversity, habitats and species is under threat due to human activities and climate change. This degradation affects our well-being and economy. The EU is taking action to restore and protect the vital systems that support life on our planet.| www.eea.europa.eu
