Idiomas:
Although Europe has made progress in reducing some key environmental pressures, often these improvements have not yet translated into improved ecosystem resilience or reduced risks to health and well-being and the long-term outlook is often less positive than recent trends might suggest.
A variety of factors contribute to these disparities. The dynamics of environmental systems can mean that there is a substantial time lag before declining pressures will translate into improvements in the state of the environment. In addition, many pressures remain considerable in absolute terms despite recent reductions. For example, fossil fuels still account for three-quarters of the EU energy supply, imposing a heavy burden on ecosystems through climate change, acidification and eutrophication impacts.
Feedbacks, interdependencies and lock-ins in environmental and socio-economic systems also undermine efforts to mitigate environmental pressures and related impacts. For example, if unsustainable systems of production and consumption are responsible for many environmental pressures, they also provide diverse benefits, including jobs and earnings. Thus, improved efficiency in production processes can lower the costs of goods and services, and result in increased consumption (the 'rebound effect'). This can create strong incentives for sectors or communities to resist change and changing exposure patterns and human vulnerabilities, for example linked to urbanisation, can also offset reductions in pressures.
Perhaps the most difficult challenges for European environmental governance arise from the fact that environmental drivers, trends and impacts are increasingly globalised. Today, a variety of long-term megatrends affect Europe's environment, consumption patterns and living standards. For example, the escalating resource use and emissions that have accompanied global economic growth in recent decades have offset the benefits of Europe's success in cutting greenhouse gas emissions and pollution, as well as creating new risks.
Globalisation of supply chains also means that many impacts of Europe's production and consumption occur in other parts of the world, where European businesses, consumers and policymakers have relatively limited knowledge, incentives and scope to influence them. For example, depending on the type of pressure, between 24% and 56% of the associated total footprint occurs outside Europe while total demand for food, feed, and fibre is projected to grow by about 60% between now and 2050 while the area of arable land per person may decrease by 1.5% per year if no major policy changes are initiated (FAO, 2009, 2012).
This globalisation of supply chains can reduce EU consumer awareness of the social, economic, and environmental implications of their purchasing decisions, which means that consumer choices may produce environmentally and socially undesirable outcomes.
