Strategic priorities

The European Green Deal is without doubt the most systemic, cross-cutting, forward-looking and sustainability-centred policy framework that the EU has developed. The coming years will be crucial to ensure that we reap the benefits of the efforts already made towards delivering its objectives. Faced with the challenges ahead, the responsibility of European decision-makers is immense. They need trusted, unbiased and actionable knowledge to do their work – which the EEA is here to provide them with.

A healthy environment is key for our wellbeing, ecosystems and economic activities. At the EEA we focus on providing objective and reliable information on biodiversity and ecosystems, zero pollution and health, water and marine bodies. We use our knowledge to effectively support policy development and implementation, including by monitoring emerging challenges of the future such as water resilience, or impacts of chemicals and new pollutants on human health and the environment. We also collaborate closely with external partners to share knowledge and identify solutions to environmental challenges.

Climate change has a huge impact on European society and its effects are likely to increase in the coming years. If we look at the data, we see that Europe has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 37% since 1990. At the same time, we need to speed up our efforts. To get from the 37% reduction to the 55% reduction in 2030 we must more than double the speed of the emission reductions.

Knowledge and data are the foundation for the political decisions that need to be made to achieve the goal of a climate-neutral Europe by 2050. In collaboration with Member States and research institutions across the region, the EEA collects and assesses the impacts of climate change on Europe, individual countries' climate efforts, and the political measures that need to be implemented to mitigate climate change.

Sustainability is about effectively balancing societal, economic and environmental priorities. The EEA supports the EU’s ambitions within this arena by developing innovative, cross-cutting knowledge and narratives on sustainability and systems transitions. We provide insight into past and current trends through assessing progress against EU and global objectives (such as the UN SDGs); explore solutions that could enable systemic change, like the circular economy, sustainable finance and more; and uncover future trends through futures literacy and foresight. Moreover, we position the EEA in sustainability conversations that matter with a wide group of actors from both the policy sphere and civil society.