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The European Commission proposed a revision of Directive 2008/99/EC on the protection of the environment through criminal law in December 2021. The proposal intends to clarify some of the terms contained in the directive and includes an updated list of environmental crime offences, harmonised sanction types and levels, measures to strengthen international investigation and prosecution, improvements to the collection of statistical data and measures to improve national enforcement chains. Ultimately ...

This briefing provides an initial analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the European Commission's impact assessment (IA) accompanying the above-mentioned proposal, which was submitted on 15 December 2021 and referred to the European Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI). Despite the lack of systematic statistical data, environmental, social and economic damage caused by environmental crimes has been widely documented. Directive 2008/99/EC (the Environmental Crime Directive, ECD) was ...

The European Union (EU) has been protecting the environment since the early 1970s, considering economic prosperity and environmental protection interdependent. As energy policies are a competence shared between the EU and its Member States (MS) joint strategic planning is strongly developed. Human activities can have adverse impacts on the environment, and subsequently on our well-being. Therefore, it is vital to monitor how MS perform in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy supply, ...

The ESP 2013-2017 is ‘the legal framework for the development, production and dissemination of European statistics’. The European Commission is of the view that the current statistical infrastructure is not flexible enough and that the European Statistical System partnership does not yet deliver sufficient cost savings because of lack of investment. That is why, in line with the ten priorities of the Juncker agenda, it proposed an extension of the current programme, additional funding, and modifications ...

This study shows that very significant GHG reductions are still necessary in the transport sector to meet EU medium and long-term climate targets. The urgency of swift policy action has increased with the Paris Agreement.

On 30 November 2015, the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP 21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is due to start in Paris. The aim is for the Parties to adopt binding rules to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and keep global warming below an increase of 2˚C. This overview shows how about 25% of CO2 emissions in the EU result from transport activities. The map below gives the share of transport emissions (from fuel combustion, not including indirect emissions from ...

The negotiating text for the new international climate agreement contains several references to 'net-zero' carbon emissions. This level of emissions is to be achieved some time in the second half of this century to avoid the dangerous levels of global warming that would result from high greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. Since some carbon emissions cannot be avoided completely (for example in agriculture, aviation and iron production), carbon dioxide (CO2) would have to be removed from ...

Water stress is steadily increasing, as a result either of droughts – a temporary decline in water resources due to low rainfall – or situations of water scarcity, where demand exceeds the level of sustainable use. Assessment of the global use of water resources is hampered by the lack of established standards, and conventional measurements may yield diverging results.

Die Biodiversität – die Vielfalt des Lebens auf der Erde – nimmt ab, was hauptsächlich auf vom Menschen verursachte Belastungen wie etwa die übermäßige Ausbeutung der natürlichen Ressourcen, den Verlust von Lebensräumen, Verschmutzung, Klimawandel und invasive gebietsfremde Arten zurückzuführen ist. Die Basis der Biodiversitätspolitik der EU bilden die Vogelschutzrichtlinie und die FFH-Richtlinie. Auf ihrer Grundlage wurde das Europäische Netz geschützter Lebensräume Natura 2000 errichtet, das mittlerweile ...

This note seeks to provide an initial analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the European Commission's Impact Assessment accompanying its proposal for a Directive amending exisitng directives on waste, waste packaging, landfill of waste, end-of-life vehicles, batteries and waste electrical and electronic equipment, transmitted on 14 July 2014. Prepared by the Ex-Ante Impact Assessment Unit for the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) of the European ...