EEA: Ecoystem Capital Accounting

The European Environment Agency (EEA) has published a report titled “An experimental framework for ecosystem capital accounting in Europe," which highlights accounting balances and relationships between accounting tables and systems, as well as key indicators and aggregates that describe economy-ecosystem interactions. Ecosystem accounts are being developed as part of the System of Environmental-Economic Accounts, aimed at supplementing the UN System of National Accounts with information on the environment and natural capital.

EEA: Resource Efficiency

The European Environment Agency (EEA) has published a report on approaches to resource efficiency in Europe, based on a survey of individual countries’ policies in 31 member and cooperating countries of the EEA network (Eionet). Among the conclusions, the EEA highlights that:
- global environmental impacts of a country's consumption are increasingly the focus of policy debate and initiatives;
- resource efficiency could be strengthened through an increased focus on products (and thus also on consumption); and
- economic instruments should be used to change consumption behavior.

"Europe's Environment: An Assessment of Assessments"

UNECE and the European Environment Agency (EEA) have launched an Assessment of Assessments report recommending ways to align environmental information and policy making, with a focus on water and the green economy. The recommendations were issued to the ministers meeting at the 7th Environment for Europe Conference, convening in Astana (Kazakhstan) from 21-23 September.

EEA Report on Landscape Fragmentation

The European Environment Agency (EEA) and the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment have released a report, titled “Landscape Fragmentation in Europe,” demonstrating how land areas in Europe become unable to support high levels of biodiversity when they are split into smaller and smaller parcels. It concludes there are several proactive policies that could provide more effective protection of remaining unfragmented areas: wildlife corridors could successfully reverse the trend of fragmentation; planners should aim to upgrade old roads instead of building new roads, and to "bundle" new infrastructure; where the volume of traffic has fallen, roads should be reduced in size or dismantled completely; and cumulative effects need to be considered more effectively, based on the precautionary principle, to avoid repeating mistakes of the past.