Measures to protect Euro-environment show little impact

Measures taken since 1990 to improve the environment have had little impact so far, according to the head of the European Environment Agency. He also warned that natural habitats had been severely damaged and in some cases were almost beyond recovery no matter how much was invested.

Mr Domingo JimenezBeltran, executive director of the EEA, made his claims in the foreword to a major report, Europe's Environment: The Second Assessment. It provides a view of the panEuropean environment and was prepared for the fourth ministerial Environment for Europe Conference, to take place on June 23rd to 25th in Aarhus, Denmark.

Europe's environment ministers agreed in 1991 to launch a programme to bring about lasting changes to environmental quality. The EEA's first assessment was presented in 1995.

This new assessment catalogues changes since then in a range of areas including climate change, ozone depletion, acid rain, chemical pollution, waste management, biodiversity, inland water quality, marine and coastal environments, urban living, soil degradation and technological hazards.

The document, published yesterday, does not make pleasant reading and gives little room for congratulation. "This new report makes it very clear that the policy measures that have been taken have not yet produced a significant improvement in the state of the environment overall," Mr JimenezBeltran stated.

"Too many environmental policies have led to `end-of-pipe' measures which have resulted in some improvement in some areas, but not enough to cope with increasing infrastructure development, production and consumption."

Progress had been made, he said, where an efficient international framework for action had been established. These include reductions in carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and lead, and control of ozone-depleting chemical discharges.

However, in areas such as soil degradation and chemical pollution, the absence of such frameworks had delayed progress to the point that assessments had yet to be made.

He noted that the degradation of natural habitats in western Europe and, to a lesser degree, in southern Europe had "been very severe and recovery would be extremely costly, if not impossible." In contrast large, almost undisturbed areas could still be found in eastern Europe and these should be seen as an opportunity to maintain them as part of Europe's "natural capital".

"The environmental challenge provides a positive opportunity for a proactive approach to reorientating economic policies to meet the needs of an enlarged European Union," he stated.

The report points out that the transport sector had become the dominant contributor to emissions related to acidification of waterways. The growing demand for private transport was "likely to exacerbate the problem," according to the report.

While reductions in output of gases associated with climate change, and falls in use of ozonedepleting chemicals had been noted, no environmental improvements had yet been seen because of the decades-long delay before reductions could have a measurable impact. Pressure on biodiversity had increased since the last report.