Europe’s environment agency has called on the continent to do more to drive its efforts to tackle climate change.

While significant progress has been made in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution, the European Environment Agency’s (EEA) has said the overall state of Europe’s environment is not good, especially its nature which continues to face degradation, overexploitation and biodiversity loss.

It added the organisation’s ‘state of environment’ report, found the outlook for most environmental trends is concerning and poses major risks to Europe’s economic prosperity, security and quality of life.

EEA Executive Director Leena Ylä-Mononen (above) said: “We cannot afford to lower our climate, environment and sustainability ambitions. Our state of environment report, co-created with 38 countries, clearly sets out the science-based knowledge and demonstrates why we need to act. In the European Union, we have the policies, the tools and the knowledge, and decades of experience in working together towards our sustainability goals. What we do today will shape our future.”

The report stresses that climate change and environmental degradation pose a “direct threat” to Europe’s competitiveness, which depends on natural resources. It added that achieving climate neutrality by 2050 also hinges on better and responsible management of land, water and other resources. Protecting natural resources, mitigating and adapting to climate change, and reducing pollution will build the resilience of vital societal functions that depend on nature, such as food security, drinking water and flood defences.

The report urged the continent to step up implementation of policies and longer-term sustainability-enabling actions already agreed to under the European Green Deal.

Executive vice-president for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition, Teresa Ribera, said: “This report is a stark reminder that Europe must stay the course and even accelerate our climate and environmental ambitions. Recent extreme weather events show how fragile our prosperity and security become when nature is degraded, and climate impacts intensify. Delaying or postponing our climate targets would only increase costs, deepen inequalities, and weaken our resilience. Protecting nature is not a cost. It is an investment in competitiveness, resilience and the well-being of our citizens. By scaling up action now, we can build a cleaner, fairer and more resilient Europe for future generations.”

Transformative change to production and consumption systems — decarbonising the economy, shifting towards circularity, reducing pollution and exercising responsible stewardship of natural resources — is urgently required, the report stated. EU policies, including the Green Deal, provide a clear pathway towards sustainability.

The report points specifically at efforts to restore habitats through nature-based solutions, which will build resilience and also help climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. It also emphasises the need to decarbonise key economic sectors, especially transport, and to address emissions from agriculture. Increasing circularity has the potential to reduce Europe’s dependency on imports of energy and critical raw materials. Further, investing in digital and green transition of European industry, Europe can enhance productivity and become a global leader in green innovation, developing technologies to decarbonise hard-to-abate industries like steel and cement.

EU commissioner for Climate, Net Zero and Clean Growth, Wopke Hoekstra, said: “This report reinforces the urgent need for the EU to maintain its strong climate ambitions. As the fastest-warming continent, Europe has witnessed firsthand the devastating impact of climate change – most recently through the severe forest fires that swept across the summer. The costs of inaction are enormous, and climate change poses a direct threat to our competitiveness. Staying the course is essential to safeguarding our economy.”