Global impacts from European consumption

The metric depicts the global environmental and climate impacts linked to the EU consumption, broken down by area of consumption. Overall, the EU’s global impacts are considered high, as they exceed the planetary boundaries for several types of impact, such as impacts on climate change and land use. The EU global impacts increased by 4% between 2010 and 2022 (by 8% up to 2019 – year before the Covid 19 pandemic, which had also a strong influence on consumption levels). Housing and food contributed the most to the total impacts along the whole period. Significant differences in the global impacts exist by Member State (see EEA indicator).

At present, it is uncertain if the EU will achieve a significant reduction in the impacts from its consumption. Major efforts are needed to both reduce the overall level of consumption and increase the use of products that have less impact on the climate and environment.

The 8th Environment Action Programme calls for the EU to significantly reduce by 2030 its global impacts, i.e. the environmental and climate impacts that result from EU citizens’ consumption, to bring it within planetary boundaries. The global impacts from European consumption refers to the environmental and climate impacts resulting from the consumption by EU citizens of goods and services, whether produced within or outside the EU.