Climate change, impacts and vulnerability in Europe ... - MemoFin.fr

Indicator and data needsA key policy development the past years was anincreased focus on green economy and resourceefficiency, in relation to the Europe 2020 – Europe'sgrowth strategy. Climate change mitigation is coveredin this strategy through targets on GHG emissionsaimed to be 20 % lower than 1990 (or 30 %, if theconditions are right), 20 % of energy to come fromrenewables and a 20 % increase in energy efficiency.Climate change adaptation is covered to a lesserextent, although the strategy does mention: 'We mustalso strengthen our economies' resilience to climaterisks, and our capacity for disaster prevention andresponse'.The resource-efficiency initiative under the Europe2020 strategy supports the shift towards a resourceefficient,low-carbon economy to achieve sustainablegrowth. The European Commission published in2011 a roadmap for a resource-efficient Europe ( 79 ). Itsets out a vision for the structural and technologicalchange needed up to 2050, with milestones tobe reached by 2020. It proposes ways to increaseresource productivity and decouple economic growthfrom resource use and its environmental impact. A setof indicators is being developed by the EuropeanCommission (including Eurostat) and also involvingthe EEA. A stakeholder consultation process takesplace in 2012 (July–October) ( 80 ).Another related development is an increasingrecognition of the need to measure progress in society,sustainability, well-being and quality of life, throughfor example a European Commission communicationon 'Beyond GDP' and an overview in a report fromthe 'Sponsorship Group on Measuring Progress,Well‐being and Sustainable Development' ( 81 ).The resource efficiency and beyond GDP indicatordevelopments have so far not included CC IVAexplicitly.Structural Indicators represent a set of 79 indicatorsdeveloped to measure the progress towards theobjectives of the Lisbon Strategy. However, afterthe conclusion of the Lisbon process in year 2010and the adoption of the Europe 2020 strategy, themaintenance of this set by EUROSTAT is beingprogressively stopped.Sustainable Development Indicators (SDIs) are used tomonitor the EU Sustainable Development Strategy(EU SDS) in a report published by Eurostat every twoyears. They are presented in 10 themes. Of more than100 indicators, 11 have been identified as headlineindicators. They were intended to give an overallpicture of whether the EU has achieved progresstowards sustainable development in terms of theobjectives and targets defined in the strategy. As one'explanatory variable', global temperature increaseswas included.The European Commission's annual EnvironmentPolicy Review is a report designed to monitor recentenvironmental trends and policy developments atEU and national levels and the progress towards theEU's key environmental goals as set out in the 6thEnvironment Action Programme. It contains about30 key environmental indicators for EU environmentpolicy and includes environmental goals as set out inthe 6th Environment Action Programme. RegardingCC IVA, the following indicators are included: globalair temperature change (compared to the goal oflimiting the increase of global temperature to 2 °Cabove pre-industrial levels); concentrations of CO 2inthe atmosphere (compared to a stabilisation level inthe range of 350 to 400 ppm); and natural disasterslinked to climate change (floods, wind storms,extreme temperatures and droughts) ( 82 ).A European Strategy for Environmental Accountingmanaged by Eurostat ( 83 ) provides the frameworkfor environmental accounts. It was followed by anEU Regulation adopted in 2011. These accountstrack the links between the environment and theeconomy at EU, national, regional and industrylevels and complement environmental statistics andindicators. They facilitate an in-depth analysis ofenvironmental concerns, since the different modulesare broken down by industry (in the manner ofNational Accounting Matrix including EnvironmentalAccounts (NAMEA)) at country level.Regarding CC IVA issues, the developments ofspecifically water accounts and possibly also in thefuture ecosystem accounts can be relevant. The EEAcollaborates with Eurostat on ecosystem accountingand is preparing several initial accounts by 2012,including on water (see below).( 79 ) See http://ec.europa.eu/environment/resource_efficiency/index_en.htm.( 80 ) See http://ec.europa.eu/environment/resource_efficiency/targets_indicators/stakeholder_consultation/index_en.htm.( 81 ) See http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/pgp_ess/about_ess/measuring_progress.( 82 ) See http://ec.europa.eu/environment/pdf/policy/EPR_2009.pdf.( 83 ) See http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/environmental_accounts/introduction.238 Climate change, impacts and vulnerability in Europe 2012