Consumption and the environment (SOER2010) - European ...

Thematic assessment | Consumption and the environment
Summary
The consumption of goods and services in EEA member countries is a major driver of global
resource use — and associated environmental impacts. Growth in global trade is resulting in an
increasing share of environmental pressures and impacts from European consumption taking place
beyond Europe. Food and drink, housing, mobility and tourism are responsible for a large part
of the pressures and impacts caused by consumption in the EU. Achieving significant reductions
in environmental pressures and impacts will require changing private and public consumption
patterns, to supplement gains achieved through better technology and improved production
processes.
Drivers and pressures
Consumption is shaped by an array of complex,
interrelated factors such as demographics, income and
prices, technology, trade, policies and infrastructure,
as well as social, cultural and psychological factors.
Production activities across economic sectors, including
extractive industries, agriculture, energy, transport and
manufacturing, are directly responsible for the majority
of the environmental impacts caused by the economy.
However, it is private and public consumption that are
the fundamental causal factors and drivers of change in
production activities.
Consumption leads to the direct creation of environmental
pressures from the use of products and services, for
example, through driving a car or heating a house with
fossil fuels. Of greater magnitude, however, are the
indirect pressures that are created along the production
chains of the goods and services consumed, including, for
example, food, clothing, furniture or electricity. Both direct
and indirect pressures result in environmental impacts, in
particular, global warming, biodiversity degradation, soil
sealing and air and water pollution. Since an increasing
share of the final and intermediate goods consumed in
Europe is imported, a growing proportion of impacts
caused by our consumption takes place in other parts
of the world. The average environmental footprint (an
indicator of pressures from consumption) per person
in EEA member countries is about double the available
biocapacity (an indicator of land which is biologically
productive) of those countries.
An EEA analysis of nine EU Member States (representing
268 million of the EU's total 501 million people) has
found that the majority of key environmental pressures
caused by total national consumption can be allocated
to eating and drinking, housing and infrastructure,
and mobility. These three broad consumption areas are
estimated to have contributed approximately two-thirds
of consumption-related material use, greenhouse gas
emissions, acidifying emissions and ozone precursor
emissions.
The reasons for these high shares are that food and drink,
housing and mobility are the areas which Europeans
spend most on and at the same time the areas with the
highest pressures per euro spent. Tourism is a fourth area
causing high and growing environmental impacts, both
within the EU and elsewhere.
A major reason why consumption negatively affects
the environment and causes an over-use of resources is
because the costs to society of environmental and resource
degradation are not fully reflected in the prices of goods
and services. Thus, many goods are relatively cheap
even though they cause major harm to the environment,
ecosystems or human health.
The need for sophisticated policy
packages
A culture of high and continuously growing levels of
consumption, generally associated with well-being and
success, has evolved in western European countries for
decades, and EU-12 Member States and the western
Balkan countries are rapidly catching up.
Large differences in environmental pressures from
consumption, even between households with equal
income levels, indicate a considerable potential for more
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The European environment | State and outlook 2010