According to a report published by the European Environment Agency (EEA) on Monday 18 January, increasing the share of renewable electricity in the EU’s energy mix between 2005 and 2018 not only reduced greenhouse gas emissions but also reduced environmental pressures from air and water pollution.
The starting point of this report is that, despite the positive impact of developing renewable electricity in terms of direct emissions, “concerns” have been raised about the overall impact on the environment.
Constructing renewable power generation components and plants “leads to specific upstream and downstream emissions and impacts, while new infrastructure can affect vulnerable habitats”, the report states.
The EEA therefore undertook a detailed life cycle analysis of 16 of the main renewable power technologies in each Member State and at EU level to provide information on six essential environmental impact categories: climate change, freshwater eutrophication, particulate matter formation, terrestrial acidification, freshwater ecotoxicity, and land occupation.
On the basis of this analysis, the Agency concludes that the gradual switch from fossil fuels to renewable sources of electricity in the EU since 2005 “has significantly reduced key environmental pressures”. The EEA has seen clear improvements in climate, acidification, eutrophication and particle matter formation.
The report indicates, however, that impact potentials for freshwater ecotoxicity and land occupation have increased slightly.
The EEA stresses that “challenges remain” and states that targeted actions can help minimise these adverse effects.
The report can be found at: http://bit.ly/3nVVkKD (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)