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Functional Urban Areas (FUAs) represent 22.9 % of the EU territory, but host 75 % of its population. In order to fulfil global and European policy objectives, like “no net land take by 2050”, it is advisable to establish guidance values for land use efficiency for most common settlement types, in particular for urban fringes and small towns in rural areas. Such guidance values need to consider a good balance between efficient land use and sufficient green space to allow a good quality of life. This dashboard presents land use efficiency values for FUAs, calculated as land uptake per capita corresponding to the SDG indicator 11.3.1.
Trees in urban areas have multiple benefits for human well being and for biodiversity as well as for carbon sequestration, climate change adaptation and flood protection. The below dashboard presents urban tree cover statistics for Functional Urban Areas in the EU27+UK and for the EEA 38+UK region, by countries. The dashboard will be updated every 3 years after the availability of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service products Urban Atlas, Tree Cover Density and Street Tree Layer.
Data submited by countries up to 01/01/2021
The figure shows the supply, production, import, export and destruction of F-gases (CO2e) from 2015 to 2020
The figure shows the supply, production, import, export and destruction of F-gases (tonnes) from 2015 to 2020
The figure shows the EU progress towards hydrofluorocarbons phase-down objectives under EU domestic targets and under the Montreal Protocol in Mt CO2e from 2015 to 2036
Data submited by countries up to 01/01/2021
Data are supplied by the countries for the annual reports "Forest Fires in Europe, Middle East and North Africa 20nn" series.
The urban waste water treatment map shows the most recently reported information on the implementation of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD). It is based on data from 2020 in EU-27 (2020) countries plus Iceland, which were reported by countries in 2022. Data are provisional, pending compliance assessment by the European Commission.
The pan-European High-Resolution Vegetation Phenology and Productivity product suite (HR-VPP) are provided at a high spatial resolution (10 m x 10 m) with a high repeat frequency. They are derived from the optical Sentinel-2 constellation data (Sentinel-2A and Sentinel-2B) with a revisit time of 5 days. They are generated over the entire EEA39 region (33 member countries and 6 cooperating countries) from January 1 2017 onwards, with a daily, 10-daily and yearly frequency (see below). The HR-VPP product suite contains 3 product groups, 31 product types, 1522 files and more than 900.000 tiles per year, which totals more than 80 Terra Bytes of data, per year.
This interactive data viewer provides accounts of imperviousness, i.e. land surface sealing status in Europe (EEA39 and EU27+UK) for the year 2018. Sealing is measured by the high resolution (10m) dataset "Imperviousness "of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service. The viewer facilitates the understanding and assessment of soil sealing, which can be queried by administrative region or the degree of urbanisation as well as by ecological units such as floodplains and coastal zones or protected areas. All disaggregated assessment level allows the query of countries and land cover classes as well.
EU legislation has led to improvements in air quality, with the percentage of urban citizens exposed to pollutant levels above standards set to protect human health falling between 2000 and 2019. However, poor air quality remains a problem: in 2019, 21% of citizens were exposed to O 3 and 10% to PM 10 levels above EU standards. This is mainly because of emissions from transport and buildings, but also from agriculture and industry. Without radical changes to mobility, energy and food systems and industry, it is unlikely that air quality targets will be met in the near future.
Historical greenhouse gas emissions from the EU buildings sector show a decreasing trend since 2005. This is the result of the implementation of higher standards for new buildings, measures to increase energy efficiency in existing buildings (e.g. through changing of heating systems, thermal insulation and more efficient heating systems), measures to decarbonise the electricity sector but also warmer temperatures. These reductions were partly offset by the increase in dwellings and by a larger average floor area in buildings. The trend in reducing emissions is expected to continue in the future, but a very strong increase in the renovation rate is needed to meet the overall EU 2030 emissions target.
Through its land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) activities, the EU currently removes a net total of 249 Mt CO 2 e from the atmosphere every year, equivalent to 7% of its annual greenhouse gas emissions. The sector will play a crucial role in helping the EU achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Doing so will require reversing the current decreasing trend of the EU's carbon sink . According to national projections from EU Member States, current measures in place will not be sufficient to achieve this, with an average removal of 200 Mt CO 2 e per year in 2030. However, implementing the national measures currently at planning stage could increase the current EU carbon sink by 3%.
Greenhouse gas emissions from the agriculture sector are covered by national annual emission targets. Between 2005 and 2019, the EU’s agriculture emissions remained stable. Current national projections only foresee a modest decline of 2% by 2030, compared with 2005 levels, and a 5% reduction with the implementation of currently planned measures. This projected progress remains largely insufficient and highlights the need for further action if Member States are to reach their binding annual targets and the EU its climate neutrality goal by 2050.
The Covid-19 pandemic had a profound impact on energy consumption in the European Union. In 2020, the EU’s primary energy consumption (for all energy uses) experienced a historical drop following 2 years of moderate reductions. Final energy consumption (by end users) also saw a significant decrease, albeit less pronounced. This contributed to the EU meeting their 2020 energy efficiency targets for both primary and final energy consumption. A rebound must be avoided; and long-term reductions remain necessary to achieve the EU’s energy and climate objectives for 2030 and 2050.
With a 21.3% share of energy consumed from renewable sources in 2020, the EU has reached its headline target (20%) for 2020, according to EEA early estimates. This success builds upon years of consistent work by all Member States, even if national progress is uneven. The exceptional circumstances of 2020, marked by disruptions in all economic sectors due to the pandemic, have facilitated meeting the renewable energy target by lowering total energy consumption. An unprecedented transformation in the energy system will still be necessary to meet the 32% renewable energy target set for 2030.
In 2019, the EU was not on track to meet its target to reduce the greenhouse gas emission intensity of fuels sold for road transport to 6% below 2010 levels by 2020. Between 2010 and 2019, emission intensity decreased by 4.3%, mostly due to the increased use of biofuels. Finland and Sweden are the only Member States whose emission intensities decreased by more than 6%, with the Netherlands reporting a 5.8% reduction in 2019. If the indirect land use change (ILUC) effects of biofuel production are considered, the emission intensity of fuels sold in the EU also decreased between 2018 and 2019, due to the limited substitution of oil crops as feedstocks by sugars.
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/find/global or scan the QR code.
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