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Environmental information systems
The EEA works to support the environment, climate and sustainability goals set under the European Green Deal (EGD) for 2030 and 2050. In practice, this means that the EEA builds its thematic work around those specific goals to help the EU meet them. As per the EEA-Eionet Strategy, these thematic areas will remain the focus until at least 2030. However, on an annual basis, the EEA’s work programme and outputs are also shaped by current and upcoming EU environment and climate policy, and emerging environmental issues.
In addition, the EEA produces the European environment — state and outlook report (SOER). Published every 5 years, it cuts across all three thematic areas and is considered the EEA’s flagship product.
The EGD provides a call to action for systemic and integrated change in Europe’s approach to protecting the environment — and how this affects our ecosystems, health and society. Under Environment activities, the EEA collects, assesses and disseminates data that support the EGD’s goals: protecting biodiversity and ecosystems, human health and the environment.
Faced with Europe’s continued biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, the EEA actively contributes to the EU’s efforts to protect and restore nature’s biodiversity and ecosystems. We provide comprehensive monitoring and analysis on the state of Europe’s nature, waters and seas. This includes assessing Europe’s habitats and species, freshwater pollution and water resilience against climate change, as well as Europe’s marine environment, including the transition of maritime sectors towards sustainability. Through such activities, the EEA directly supports the development and implementation of key policies, such as the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030, the recent Nature Restoration Regulation and numerous other EU legislations addressing nature, forests, soils, waters and marine environments.
Environmental pollutants and Europe’s changing climate continue to affect human health. The EEA helps improve our understanding of the combined impacts of these stressors in relation to societal health and resilience, as well as the specific factors affecting the exposure and vulnerability of Europe’s residents. This includes supporting and assessing progress towards the EU’s zero-pollution objectives for air, water and soil, and promoting a One Health approach, where the links between human, animal and environmental health are recognised and addressed.
The EEA monitors the progress of Europe’s transition towards a circular economy, as well as the related environmental and climate benefits. By highlighting the state and outlook of Europe’s circular economy, the EEA also assesses Europe’s efforts towards reducing the impacts caused by our society’s production and consumption, with a focus on raw materials, products, services and waste. With regards to specific value chains, the EEA prioritises its activities to focus on opportunities for circularity in plastics, textiles and buildings.
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Europe is the fastest-warming continent in the world. Climate risks are growing rapidly as we approach 1.5 degrees of global warming. This calls for increased focus across all sectors to mitigate climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), enhancing carbon removal from the atmosphere to prevent further warming, strengthening adaptation efforts to address the impacts that are already unavoidable, and more. The EU has set the course for climate neutrality by 2050 in a way that supports the economy and leaves no one behind. The EEA supports the transition by delivering data and assessments on progress and gaps. These include:
Identification of climate change impacts and risks that pose a threat to Europe’s energy and food security, ecosystems, infrastructure, water resources, financial stability and human health. The knowledge is provided through close cooperation with the Eionet network and is synthesised to support strategic policymaking on climate change adaptation in the EU Member States, as well as EEA member and cooperating countries.
Monitoring historical trends, recent progress and projected future developments in climate change mitigation through reduced GHG emissions, renewable energy gains and improved energy efficiency. The EEA tracks European and national distances to target to reach European climate ambitions based on data collected from the EU-27 Member States, five EEA member countries and nine Contracting Parties of the Energy Community.
Providing policymakers with insights into the progress of climate change mitigation in the agriculture, transport, forestry and land use sectors. This includes identifying options to reduce GHG emissions and remove more carbon, while also considering the co-benefits and trade-offs with other environmental factors in the land sector.
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The need for fundamental sustainability transitions — processes of transformation in key systems such as energy, mobility, food and the built environment — is not new. However, it takes on a more urgent aspect as converging political, social and environmental issues confront us.
The EEA supports the sustainability transition by developing and delivering timely, policy-relevant data, indicators and assessments on the state and outlook of Europe’s environment as well as key socioeconomic trends and enablers. These include sustainable finance, systems transformation and innovation, foresight, just transition and the circular economy.
Our knowledge, based on the latest scientific findings and quality-assured data, will help Europe — the European Union, its Member States and other EEA member and cooperating countries — to achieve EU and global policy goals.
Our work is underpinned by a close working relationship with the Scientific Committee of the EEA, our Eionet network as well as relevant groups of actors across the ‘transitions’ landscape in Europe and beyond.
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Every 5 years, the EEA publishes the European environment — state and outlook report. This report consists of comprehensive and cross-cutting assessments of Europe’s environment, highlighting recent trends and outlooks on a broad range of pressures and drivers related to the environment and climate change. In addition to systemic challenges and emerging issues, SOERs provide policy support and outline solutions and pathways towards the EGD’s vision of becoming the first climate-neutral continent.
The European environment — state and outlook 2025
The European environment — state and outlook 2025 will be the 7th edition of this comprehensive and integrated assessment of Europe’s environment, as mandated by the EEA regulation.
The assessment will span diverse policy domains; encompass thematic, systems, transitions and sustainability perspectives; and engage key stakeholders such as Eionet, Commission Services and the EEA Scientific Committee in its development, as well as actors from civil society and business.
Main takeaways from SOER 2020
SOER 2020 declared that Europe will not achieve its 2030 goals without urgent action to address the alarming rate of biodiversity loss, increasing impacts of climate change and the overconsumption of natural resources. The assessment highlighted the persistent scale and urgency of the challenges facing Europe and declared that the transition towards sustainability required:
- a shift in the character and ambition of actions;
- strengthening existing policy tools;
- innovative approaches to governance;
- much greater policy implementation and coherence;
- increased funding and capacity-building;
- engagement of business and citizens;
- better coordination of local, regional and national authorities; and
- a stronger knowledge base.
Leena Ylä-Mononen
EEA Executive Director
Europe’s environment requires urgent action. We have a narrow window of opportunity to scale up measures to protect nature, lessen the impacts of climate change and radically reduce our consumption of natural resources.