EEA Report No 30/2016 Environmental indicator report 2016 In support to the monitoring of the 7th Environment Action Programme ISSN 1977-8449 EEA Report No 30/2016 Environmental indicator report 2016 In support to the monitoring of the 7th Environment Action Programme Cover design: EEA Cover photos: © Erika Zolli, My City/EEA Layout: EEA/Pia Schmidt Legal notice The contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the official opinions of the European Commission or other institutions of the European Union. Neither the European Environment Agency nor any person or company acting on behalf of the Agency is responsible for the use that may be made of the information contained in this report. Copyright notice © European Environment Agency, 2016 Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. More information on the European Union is available on the Internet (http://europa.eu). Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2016 ISBN 978-92-9213-832-5 ISSN 1977-8449 doi:10.2800/76896 European Environment Agency Kongens Nytorv 6 1050 Copenhagen K Denmark Tel.: +45 33 36 71 00 Web: eea.europa.eu Enquiries: eea.europa.eu/enquiries Contents Contents Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................5 Foreword ......................................................................................................................................6 Synopsis .......................................................................................................................................7 S.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................7 S.2 Key messages from the indicator scoreboard ....................................................................7 S.3 In conclusion ... ......................................................................................................................11 Introduction ..............................................................................................................................12 I.1 The Seventh Environment Action Programme ..................................................................12 I.2 The European environment — state and outlook report 2015 .......................................13 I.3 Environmental indicator report 2016: origin, scope, objectives and approach ............13 1 Seventh Environment Action Programme priority objective 1: To protect, conserve and enhance the Union's natural capital ........................16 1.1 Introduction ...........................................................................................................................16 1.2 Progress and 2020 outlook ..................................................................................................18 1.3 Synergies, challenges and opportunities ...........................................................................21 1.4 Other relevant knowledge ....................................................................................................21 2 Seventh Environment Action Programme priority objective 2: To turn the Union into a resource-efficient, green and competitive low-carbon economy ..............................................................................................23 2.1 Introduction ...........................................................................................................................23 2.2 Progress and 2020 outlook ..................................................................................................23 2.3 Synergies, challenges and opportunities ...........................................................................28 2.4 Other relevant knowledge ....................................................................................................28 3 Seventh Environment Action Programme priority objective 3: To safeguard the Union's citizens from environment-related pressures and risks to health and well-being .......................................................................31 3.1 Introduction ...........................................................................................................................31 3.2 Progress and 2020 outlook ..................................................................................................32 3.3 Synergies, challenges and opportunities ...........................................................................35 3.4 Other relevant knowledge ....................................................................................................36 Environmental indicator report 2016 3 Contents 4 Spotlight on priority objective 2: key enabling factors for a green economy transition ................................................................................................39 4.1 A green economy and environment policy ........................................................................39 4.2 Eco-innovation .......................................................................................................................40 4.3 Green finance ........................................................................................................................42 4.4 Conclusion ..............................................................................................................................45 References .................................................................................................................................47 Annex 1 Scoreboard indicators: sources, time periods and expected updates .....................................................................54 4 Environmental indicator report 2016 Acknowledgements Acknowledgements EEA lead authors Acknowledgements Aphrodite Mourelatou, Catherine Ganzleben, Cathy • Support from Trinomics B. V. and from the Maguire, Frank Wugt Larsen, Ricardo Fernandez, Stefan European Topic Centre on Waste and Materials in Ulrich Speck. a Green Economy. • Feedback from the European Environment EEA authors and contributors to the Information and Observation Network (Eionet) briefings given by national focal points and state of the environment national reference centres from Alberto González Ortiz, Alfredo Sanchez Vicente, 33 EEA member countries. Almut Reichel, Anca-Diana Barbu, André Jol, Andrus  Meiner, Anke Lükewille, Annemarie Bastrup-Birk, • Feedback from the European Commission Aphrodite Mourelatou, Carlos de Oliveira Romao, (DG Environment and DG Climate Action). Catherine Ganzleben, Cathy Maguire, Colin Nugent, Constança de Carvalho Belchior, François Dejean, • Feedback from EEA colleagues including Jock Frank Wugt Larsen, Geertrui Louwagie, Katarzyna Martin, Johannes Schilling, Mike Asquith and Biała, Martin Adams, Mihai Tomescu, Nihat Zal, Paweł Sigfús Bjarnason. Kaźmierczyk, Peter Kristensen, Ricardo Fernandez, Stefan Ulrich Speck, Stéphane Isoard, Spyridoula Ntemiri. Production and editing support Andy Martin, Antonio de Marinis, Antti Kaartinen, Carsten Iversen, Marco Veneziani, Marie Jaegly Kolar, Mauro Michielon, Pia Schmidt. Environmental indicator report 2016 5 Foreword Foreword With this report and its scoreboard of indicators, the and of EU priorities such as the Circular Economy European Environment Agency (EEA) is responding to transition and the Energy Union, will also require the mandate given to it to support with indicators the understanding the synergies and trade-offs between monitoring of the General Union Environment Action the economy, the environment and human well-being. Programme to 2020, 'Living well, within the limits of our The opportunities for knowledge synergies across planet' (7th EAP). these policy domains are potentially considerable. A knowledge toolkit that goes beyond existing, The scoreboard tracks progress towards the established datasets, indicators and assessments is achievement of three of the nine priority objectives needed to avail of such opportunities. of the 7th EAP — natural capital; resource-efficient, low-carbon economy; and people's health and In this regard, the EEA and its partners in the EU well-being — by 2020. Environment Knowledge Community (EKC) are designing a new knowledge agenda in line with priority The analysis shows that EU environmental policies objective 5 of the 7th EAP. The work of the EKC is have been more successful in reducing pressures and guided by innovations that facilitate information improving efficiency than on reducing overall impacts production, sharing and integration. A key objective on people's health and well-being or in ensuring the is to provide new knowledge and indicators by resilience of natural systems. 2020, in order to improve understanding of how to achieve more integrated and systemic long-term The approach taken in this report emphasises objectives. Examples of EKC projects include natural quantifiable objectives and indicators. These are mostly capital accounting, applying the concept of planetary derived from reporting by EU Member States and their boundaries at the European level, climate adaptation, immediate neighbours to meet agreed commitments emerging risks, environmental foresight and citizen in existing policies at the EU and international levels. As science. such, the results should be considered alongside other EEA assessments, most notably its latest European In the coming 2–3 years, I look forward to these and environment — state and outlook report (SOER 2015). other innovations providing indicators and analysis SOER 2015 provides an overview of the state of, that support the monitoring and evaluation of all the trends in and prospects for the environment in Europe priority objectives of the 7th EAP, while informing our by combining quantitative, qualitative, broad and next 'State of the environment and outlook report' long-term perspectives in an integrated, comprehensive (SOER 2020) on progress towards the 7th EAP ambition assessment. of 'Living well, within the limits of our planet' by 2050. It is becoming clear that dealing with the complex, inter-related priorities of the 7th EAP requires more Hans Bruyninckx integrated and systemic approaches to knowledge. Meeting the objectives of the United Nations Executive Director Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, European Environment Agency 6 Environmental indicator report 2016 Synopsis Synopsis S.1 Introduction the form of an indicator scoreboard. The methodology for the scoreboard is described in the introductory A General Union Environment Action Programme to chapter (see Box I.1); where available and appropriate, 2020, 'Living well, within the limits of our planet', was corresponding information on the EU's immediate adopted for the European Union (EU) in November neighbours is provided. 2013 by a co-decision of the European Parliament and the European Council. It came into force in January 2014. This programme is commonly known as the S.2 Key messages from the indicator Seventh Environment Action Programme or 7th EAP. scoreboard The 7th EAP provides an overarching framework for EU The thematic priority objectives of the 7th EAP are environment policy planning and implementation to wide-ranging, diverse and complex, reflecting today's be achieved by 2020. It does this within the context of environmental and societal challenges and those it is a vision for 2050 of 'Living well, within the limits of our expected that Europe will face in the coming decades. planet' (see page 12 for more details). The programme It is simply not feasible to measure every possible contains nine priority objectives, of which three variable within each objective. Rather, indicators thematic priority objectives are considered central and are used as simple measurements to enhance having their achievement supported by other priority understanding of what is happening. They do not objectives. The thematic priority objectives are: attempt to reflect reality in all its complexity but, rather, give an idea of the direction of change over time and • 'to protect, conserve and enhance the Union's space. As such, they provide a practical and economical natural capital'; way to track and communicate progress. For example, emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere and • 'to turn the Union into a resource-efficient, green, average global temperature are good indicators with and competitive low-carbon economy'; respect to the highly complex issue of climate change. With this in mind, what messages can be derived from • 'to safeguard the Union's citizens from the scoreboard? environment-related pressures and risks to health and well-being'. For priority objective 1, it can be discerned that the EU's natural capital is not yet being protected, This report follows on from the EEA report SOER 2015 — maintained and enhanced in line with the ambitions The European environment — state and outlook 2015, and of the 7th EAP. Natural capital sets the ecological examines whether or not the EU is on the right path to limits for our socio-economic systems; it continues, achieve, by 2020, the 7th EAP's three thematic priority nevertheless, to be degraded and depleted, and it objectives (1). It does not address the other six priority is under a cumulative threat from the distributed objectives of the 7th 7EAP. impacts of habitat change, climate change, pollution, overexploitation of natural resources and invasive The report uses a set of 29 indicators to track past alien species. Some pressures have reduced, such as progress and provides an outlook to 2020 for each agricultural nitrogen loads, air pollutant emissions indicator. Table S.1 summarises the overall results in causing eutrophication, and the rate of loss of land to (1) The establishment of this report was inspired by Article 4.1 of the 7th EAP. This requires that the European Commission monitors the 7th EAP in the context of the regular monitoring process of the Europe 2020 Strategy and it stipulates that: 'This process shall be informed by the European Environment Agency's indicators on the state of the environment as well indicators used to monitor progress in achieving existing environment and climate-related legislation and targets such as the climate and energy targets, biodiversity targets and resource efficiency milestones'. The vast majority of these indicators correspond to aspects of the three thematic priority objectives of the 7th EAP. Environmental indicator report 2016 7 Synopsis Table S.1 7th EAP thematic priority objectives scoreboard Indicator EU indicator Indicative outlook of the past trend EU meeting the selected objective by 2020 Priority objective 1: 'to protect, conserve and enhance the Union's natural capital' Exposure of terrestrial ecosystems to eutrophication due to air pollution (a)  Gross nutrient balance in agricultural land: nitrogen  Land take (a)  Forest: growing stock, increment and fellings  (b) Status of marine fish stocks  Abundance and distribution of selected species (common birds (a) and  grassland butterflies) Species of European interest  Habitats of European interest  Status of surface waters N.A.  Priority objective 2: 'to turn the Union into a resource-efficient, green, and competitive low-carbon economy' Resource productivity  Waste generation in Europe  Recycling of municipal waste (a)  Use of freshwater resources   Total greenhouse gas emission trends and projections  Share of renewable energy in gross final energy consumption  Progress on energy efficiency in Europe  Energy consumption by households  Greenhouse gas emissions from transport  Consumption of meat, dairy, fish and seafood  Share of environmental and labour taxes in total tax revenues  Employment and value added in the environmental goods and services sector  Environmental protection expenditure in Europe  Priority objective 3: 'to safeguard the Union's citizens from environment-related pressures and risks to health and well-being' Exceedance of air quality limit values in urban areas (nitrogen dioxide: NO2; NO2, PM10  coarse dust particles: PM ; ozone: O; fine particulate matter: PM ) O, PM 10 3 2.5 3 2.5 Emissions of the main air pollutants in Europe (sulphur oxides, nitrogen oxides, ammonia, non-methane volatile organic compounds, fine particulate  matter) (a) Bathing water quality  Number of countries that have adopted a climate change adaptation strategy N.A.  and/or plan Exposure to environmental noise  Production of chemicals, by hazard class  Total sales of pesticides  EU indicator past trend Indicative outlook of the EU meeting the selected objective by 2020  Improving trend It is likely that the objective will be met by 2020  Stable or unclear trend It is uncertain whether or not the objective will be met by 2020  Deteriorating trend It is unlikely that the objective will be met by 2020 Notes: (a) T he indicator past trend is also available at EEA member country aggregate level and not just at the EU aggregate level. In all of these cases, the assessment (in terms of colour) remains the same for the EU and the EEA member country (including the EU) indicator past trend, with the exception of the ammonia emissions in the emissions of the main air pollutants indicator in which the EEA member country past trend deteriorated while the EU past trend improved. (b) The focus of this outlook is solely on forest utilisation. N.A. N on applicable. It is not possible to measure a trend. In the case of the status of surface water indicator, there is not yet time series available. In the case of the indicator on the number of countries that have adopted a climate change adaptation strategy and/or plan this is a measure of binary evidence. 8 Environmental indicator report 2016