Brussels, 03/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - Without more ambitious policies for a green revolution, without massive investments in innovation and fundamental changes in currently unsustainable production and consumption systems, the EU will not meet the ongoing and growing environmental challenges it continues to face or achieve its environmental objectives for 2050, the European Environment Agency (EEA) said on Tuesday 3 March.
The report The European Environment - State and Outlook 2015, which is published every five years, is an alarming snapshot of the lamentable state of the environment, a profession of faith in the benefits of the green economy for sustainable growth and a plea for the circular economy, “which Europe is still a long way from”, the EEA stresses. The message is loud and clear, at a time when the European Commission is proceeding with the much-criticised withdrawal of its 'Waste' legislative package (see EUROPE 11261).
According to this report, which aims to feed into European policy, the EU is continuing to degrade the resources it relies on, and the continued loss of biodiversity and climate change remain major threats to the future quality of living and prosperity in Europe. Admittedly, European environmental and climate policies have led to substantial results in recent years - cleaner air, cleaner freshwater, less waste going into landfill, more resources being recycled - which have improved standards of living whilst boosting innovation, creating jobs and growth; but Europe is a long way away from achieving its objective of 'living well within the limits of the planet by 2050' assigned to it by the seventh action programme for the environment, the EEA stresses.
“We need to be able to recalibrate the policies with greater focus on innovation and research. Our system of producing food and industrial products is unsustainable. We have to work at the level of the systems, invest more systematically in innovation. It will be tough, but we are optimistic”, said the Agency's executive director, Hans Bruyninckx, presenting the report to the press. He went on to add: “Industry and jobs related to green growth are doing well. We should be confident, we have to make massive investments today to work towards 2050. We have to decarbonise our societies, set in place a circular economy, take account of ecosystem-related services and measure everything in the light of well-being. Taxation also needs to change to get rid of subsidies which are harmful to the environment”.
Karmenu Vella, the European commissioner for the environment, said that this report would be the basis for the Commission's work to “set the EU in a race against time”. He pledged the Commission's commitment to promote the circular economy with the “next, more ambitious package”, which it will present “before the end of this year” and which will mark “the advent of an economy transformed into an ecosystem, an economy in which the waste from one sector of industry will be the raw material of another”. The Commissioner is putting his hopes in the 'Clean air in Europe' legislative package, currently on the table of the European Parliament and the Council, to reduce the number of early deaths every year caused by atmospheric pollution. He also announced a communication for 2015 on the governance of the oceans, to create “a more integrated and global policy which guarantees blue growth whilst improving the environmental status of our seas and oceans”, together with a full report on the state of nature in April.
As regards the major financial requirements for infrastructure, which the EEA has put at €270 million a year, Vella said that he was confident that the Juncker investment plan “will play a decisive role in investments in green growth”.
Here are the main findings of the report:
Natural capital: - the continued worsening of the ecosystems is a threat to economic activity, the creation of wealth and human well-being; - the loss of biodiversity continues: 60% of protected species and 77% of protected habitats under the directives on the protection of nature are in such an unfavourable state of conservation that Europe will not achieve its objective of halting the loss of biodiversity by 2020; - half of all bodies of European freshwater are unlikely to be in a “good ecological state” in 2015; - marine and coastal biodiversity is under threat from damage to seabeds, pollution, invasive alien species and the acidification of the oceans. Although overfishing has fallen in the Atlantic Ocean and the Baltic Sea, the Mediterranean saw overfishing of 91% of the stocks assessed in 2014; - less than 6% of Europe's agricultural surface area was used for organic farming in 2012, with enormous differences between countries; - in the future, the impacts of climate change are likely to ramp up the pressure and impacts, whilst the underlying forces driving the loss of biodiversity are expected to remain.
Efficient use of resources: - the domestic consumption of resources has fallen (13.7 tonnes per head in 2012 compared to 16.7 tonnes in 2007) due to the downturn of the construction industry in certain countries; - waste management has improved in recent years, with a fall in the quantity of waste produced and quantities sent to landfill. Recycling rates were up in 21 countries between 2004 and 2012, whilst landfill rates fell in 27 of the 31 countries for which data are available. The countries of the EEA achieved an average recycling rate of 29% in 2012 (compared to 22% in 2004); - greenhouse gas emissions have fallen by 19% since 1990, even despite a 45% increase in economic activity; - use of fossil fuels has fallen, as have emissions of certain pollutants from transport and industry; - the 2008 financial crisis and the economic problems it caused have also contributed to reducing certain environmental pressures, but there is nothing to say that these improvements will last; - the policies currently in force are not enough to allow the EU to achieve its long-term environmental objectives, such as reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by between 80% and 95% between now and 2050.
Health and well-being: - environmental policies have improved the quality of drinking water and bathing water and have reduced exposure to major harmful pollutants; - atmospheric and noise pollution continue to have serious impacts on health in urban areas. In 2011, nearly 430,000 early deaths in the EU were attributed to fine particles, and exposure to noise contributes to around 10,000 early deaths every year, as a result of heart disease; - the increasing use of chemical products, particularly in consumer products, has been associated with an observed increase in endocrine diseases and problems in people; - the anticipated improvements in air quality are not expected to be enough to prevent the damage from continuing, and the consequences of climate change are expected to worsen; - the environmental industries sector experienced growth in excess of 50% between 2000 and 2011. This is one of very few sectors to have prospered in terms of revenue and jobs since the 2008 financial crisis. (Aminata Niang)