Science

How will we meet our needs for food, housing, energy and mobility in 2050? What major disruptions—from global unrest to climate breakdown or digital collapse—could reshape them? And how can we future-proof these vital production and consumption systems against disruptions? These are the questions explored in an EEA report released today.

While prevention measures are gaining momentum, more effective efforts at national level are needed to tackle the huge problem of food waste, according to a European Environment Agency (EEA) report. The assessment gives an update on waste prevention measures across the EU. Preventing food waste is both urgent and necessary, given the high impacts of food waste on climate change, but also to protect biodiversity, reduce pollution and enhance food security, it says.

Scaling up sustainable and biodegradable materials is crucial for the future advancement of European industry. Currently, many bio-based alternatives struggle to compete with established fossil-based chemicals due to challenges in environmental, economic, and societal performance. To overcome this, NEXT-STEP aims to develop recyclable products from wood production residues for everyday applications. New biochemical materials will be developed for shoe soles and insulation materials for construction.

The European Commission and the European Environment Agency (EEA) have published the second Zero Pollution Monitoring and Outlook report, which provides an overview of the EU’s work to meet the 2030 zero pollution targets. The Commission has also published its fourth Clean Air Outlook report. The reports show that EU policies have contributed to reducing air pollution, pesticide use and plastic litter at sea. However, pollution levels are still too high, in particular from harmful noise, microplastic releases into the environment, nutrient pollution and waste generation.

Despite steady progress in key areas, the European Union is only partially on track to achieve the EU’s 2030 climate, environment and sustainability objectives, according to the latest monitoring report published by the European Environment Agency (EEA). More decisive measures are needed to boost a circular economy, reverse the declining trend in biodiversity and in reducing the EU’s consumption footprint.

Aimplas joins forces in the REFEST project, which aims to retrofit traditional fishing fleets with innovative, low-cost technologies to significantly reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

The focus on finding solutions to the growing issue of textile waste is growing at both European and global levels. The EU-funded project tExtended is spearheading innovation in this area with the development of a blueprint, a knowledge-based masterplan to develop and demonstrate effective textile recovery, reuse, waste valorisation, and recycling processes.

NTU researchers construct a model to find out how to make waste incineration more environmentally friendly.

Europe has set ambitious goals to create a competitive circular economy that can be key in supporting innovation, decarbonisation and security. 

In the second quarter of 2024, the EU economy greenhouse gas emissions were estimated at 790 million tonnes of CO2-equivalents (CO2-eq), a 2.6% decrease compared with the same quarter of 2023 (812 million tonnes of CO2-eq).

The new EU funded ReBioCycle project provides a portfolio of bioplastic sorting and recycling technologies within three complementary waste-processor-centric hubs.