Update: EEA/Eionet developments European Environment Agency 1

Approach to presentation 1) Context for EEA indicator work 2) Reflections arising from SOER 2010 3) The EEA indicator review process 4) Considerations for future work 2

SOER 2010 outcome: a series of assessments across themes and scales Thematic assessments Country assessments Understanding climate change Country profiles Mitigating climate change National and regional stories Adapting to climate change Biodiversity Common environmental themes Land use Land use Land use Climate change mitigation Soil Soil Soil Land use Marine and coastal environment Marine and coastal environment Assessment of global megatrends Nature protection & biodiversity Consumption and environment Waste Material resources and waste Social megatrends Freshwater Water resources: quantity & flows Technological megatrends Air pollution Freshwater quality Economic megatrends Each EEA member country (32) and EEA cooperating country (6) assessed all six environmental themes above. Air pollution Environmental megatrends Urban environment Political megatrends

Overarching rationale: Linking assessments across themes and scales Global level European level National level ... Sub-national level Climate Land Water SOE Assessments Thematic Assessments Note: Indicators (i.e. the toblerone‘s ‘scaffolding‘) are the basis of environmental assessments (i.e.the toblerone‘s ‘chocolate‘) 4

EEA indicators: ongoing activities and proposals under discussion Four distinct but inter-connected activities underway: (1) ‘Clean-up‘ of existing EEA indicators – end-2009: ~700 across 24 themes and sectors; - current: 226 across 12 themes and sectors (+ 20-30 in prep.). (2) ‘Mapping‘ of EEA indicators & ‘Identifying‘ new demands in response to policy needs – e.g. EU2020, SCP, ecosystems; (3) ‘Linking‘ to indicators in national-level SoE reports to gauge compatibility between EEA and national indicators (SENSE); (4) ‘Using‘ existing indicators in an annual publication of a thematically cross-cutting indicator-based assessment. 5

EEA indicators: ‘Clean-up‘ of existing EEA indicators Tier 1: EEA core indicators CSI (core set of indicators) Energy indicators (29 / 5 CSI) Climate change indcators (42+4 / 5 CSI) Transport indicators (38 / 3 CSI) Tier 2: EEA indicator themes Agriculture (CSI) Air pollution (APE+CSI) Biodiversity (SEBI + CSI) Climate (CLIM + CSI) Energy (ENER + CSI) Transport (TERM + CSI) Waste (CSI) Water (WEC, WEU, WHS + CSI) Fisheries (CSI) Land & Soil (CSI) Tourism (YIR) Env. Scenarios (Outlook, FLIS) Biodiversity indicators (25+2 / 3 CSI) Waste indicators (2 / 2 CSI) EEA core indicators (37 CSI) Air pollution indicators (6+5 / 5 CSI) Water indicators (7+7 / 7 CSI) Agriculture indicators (2 / 2 CSI) Fisheries indicators (3 / 3 CSI) Land & Soil indicators (2/ 2 CSI) Environmental scenarios indicators (45 / 0 CSI) Tourism indicators (7 / 0 CSI) 6

EEA indicators: ‘Mapping‘ of EEA indicators & ‘Identifying’ new demands Mapping will provide a basis for adding or deleting further indicators to the overall EEA indicators set. Criteria will provide a robust and transparent basis for making changes to the EEA indicators as new policy demands require. ‘Identifying‘ new demands in response to policy needs, such as: EU 2020 / resource efficiency indicators SCP (consumption & production) indicators Monitoring the European ecosystem capital 7

EEA indicators: ‘Using‘ existing indicators in an annual publication Using EEA indicator in annual indicator report series. Each annual edition should provide an assessment of selected, cross-cutting issues (in 2012: Green Economy). The report series will build largely on indicators hosted by the EEA within the various environmental themes and economic sectors. Human well-being (social and human capital) goal: enhance social equity and fair burden-sharing Ecosystem (natural capital) goal: ensure ecological resilience Economy (manufactured and financial capital) goal: improve resource efficiency GREEN ECONOMY 8

Consideration for future work 1) Need to link EEA indicator review process to other EU-level activities, e.g. indicator streamlining work 2) EEA internal working group to present 1st proposal to EEA Eionet & Magt. Board meetings at end of 2011 3) Advancing knowledge and policy demands require adaptation of EEA ( & other) indicator sets 4) The stronger the statistical foundation for indicators and assessments the higher their credibility in policy process 9

Thank you for your attention! Jan-Erik.Petersen@eea.europa.eu