Transcript Press presentation - European Environment Agency

Environmental signals
2001
European Environment Agency
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EEA indicator reports provide signals:
on trends in the state of the environment
on the integration of environmental policy
into other policy fields
on eco-efficiency and material flows
on country performance
on progress made and promises for
the future
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The difficult problems persist:
Tackling climate change
Greenhouse gas emissions:
• 4 % decrease between 1990 and 1999 but projected to fall by only
1 % by 2010
• Fluorinated gas emissions projected to increase by 60-70 % by
2010 (from 1995 levels)
• Between 1990 and 1998 total EU carbon dioxide emissions
stabilised. Projected to increase by 3 % to 4 % by 2010 from 1990
levels ( 25 % from Transport, assuming implementation of the EU
strategy to reduce emissions from cars)
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Resources
Land
• Every day (1990-98), about 10 hectares of land were taken for
motorway construction - High rate of land fragmentation
• Permanent EU grassland area fell by 12 % (1975-95)
Waste
• Total generation per capita still increasing and coupled to
economic growth
• Waste from household and commercial activities (400 kg/capita)
exceeds the target for 2000 set by 5EAP (300 kg/capita)
Health
• Substantial parts of the urban population (42 %) still exposed to
high concentrations of ground level ozone and fine particles
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Growth in the economy and number of
households still requires additional energy use
A relative decoupling:
• More than 1 % increase per year between 1980 and
1998, compared with GDP growth of 2 %
At the same time:
• Transport: 47 % increase in energy use since 1985
(still growing by about 3 % annually)
• Households: around 10% increase in energy use in
the 1990s
• Energy-related carbon dioxide emissions have been
partially decoupled from such growth.
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The challenge: evolving patterns and scale
of consumption and production
Passenger transport:
• Constantly increasing: 55 % over the past 20 years (average
annual growth rate of 2.8 %) - No prospects of decoupling from
GDP in medium term
• Tourism is the fastest-growing reason for travel: number of
inbound tourists grew faster than total passenger transport
Growing consumerism expenditures:
• Household expenditure nearly twice what it was in 1980
• Marked increase on recreation (73 %), transport (65% but only 3%
on public transport) and tourism (16 % between 1990 and 1997)
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Tourism: a growing concern
Tourism flows and transportation
• Tourism accounts for 50% of transport energy use and for 70 %
of air transport
• 90% of energy use taken up by access to and return from
destination
• In France 5–7 % of greenhouse gas emissions are due to
tourism transportation
Tourism demand & intensity:
• Expanding growing number of secondary homes (land take 40
times higher than a flat)
• Tourism infrastructure development beyond carrying capacities
of destinations (coastal & mountain areas)
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Pricing of consumer goods and services
• Steady fall in domestic electricity prices: around 1 % per year in
real terms since 1985
• Tourism prices continually decreasing, resulting in more trips per
capita per year
• Available data shows that car transport is cheaper relative to bus
and train than 20 years ago
• EU average price of road fuel in 2000 was lower than in the first
half of the 1980s
• External costs of transport are about 8% of GDP. Road transport is
responsible for more than 95% of these costs
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Progress towards Integration:
Transport
• EU transport infrastructure investment grew by 17 % in the
period 1980-1996
• In the same period investment shares in different transport
modes have remained almost unchanged: about 2/3 for road and
1/3 for rail
• The share of the more environmentally friendly freight modes
(rail, inland waterways, short sea shipping) decreased by 10 %
in the period 1980 to 1998
• No specific transport policies to manage tourism demand
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Progress towards Integration:
Agriculture
• CAP expenditures: Financial support for rural development has
increased from 5 % in 1996 to 10 % in 2000
• More than 20 % of EU farmland is covered by agri-environment
measures
• More than 3 million farms disappeared in the EU between 1975 and
1995, together with a 12 % reduction in permanent pastures
• In many countries the market for organic products is still small; it
is, however, growing everywhere
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Country performance
Greenhouse gases and Kyoto targets
An overview of recent projections by Member States suggests that
existing policies and measures will result in total EU greenhouse
gas emissions falling by only 1 % by 2010, from 1990 levels
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Country performance
Renewables
• Contribute 14 % of
electricity generation
in the EU
• While they grew
about 3 % per year
over 1989-98, an
annual increase of
5.5 % would be
needed to reach the
2010 target
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Country performance
Municipal waste and landfilling target
• 66 % of
biodegradable
municipal waste
goes to landfill,
twice the EU target
• There has been no
improvement in the
countries that make
the most use of
landfilling
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