The Zero Pollution Dashboard
Achieving clean air, water and soil improves citizens’ health, protects biodiversity and creates wellbeing. It can also become a competitive advantage. European regions have invested in environmental protection for many years. They have used EU funding to modernise and maintain water and waste-water infrastructure, promote sustainable mobility and tackle air pollution, and to tap in to nature based solutions through restoration. These actions contribute to the zero-pollution ambition.
The Zero Pollution Action Plan includes flagship initiatives to promote zero pollution in cities and regions. The dashboard for regions shows the main environmental pollution indicators addressing health, ecosystem protection and biodiversity, as well as production and consumption.
The objectives are to:
- Measure the efforts of EU regions to achieve the environmental targets
- Showcase the best performances and best progress over time and highlight best practices
- Inform about effectiveness of actions and investments
- Create new regional tourism and business opportunities
- Connect zero pollution monitoring at EU and national level to the regional and local level
The assessment of cities’ green performance will be carried out through the Green City Accord.
Most EU regions have reduced air, water and soil pollution over the past 20 years. 15 regions in 5 countries have achieved a low level of pollution compared to the EU averages based on a combination of indicators. For the period 2020-2022, the cleanest regions are:
- In Sweden: Övre Norrland, Norra Mellansverige, Östra Mellansverige, Småland med öarna, Västsverige
- In France: Limousin, Aquitaine, Franche-Comté; Languedoc-Roussillon
- In Austria: Tirol, Kärnten, Vorarlberg, Salzburg
- In Finland: Länsi-Suomi
- In Germany: Gießen
Find out how clean your region is
A key factor in poor air quality is very small particulate matter (PM 2,5) coming mainly from vehicle and factory emissions. It can have serious health impacts such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, and is the biggest contributor to premature deaths from air pollution.
The EU has set a target to reduce premature deaths by 55% in 2030 compared to 2005, while the new Ambient Air Quality Directive sets strict new limits on PM 2,5 of 10 µg/m3 from 2030.
From 2016 to 2020:
97% of regions have improved air quality
17 regions have improved air quality by 1/3
Algarve has achieved the highest reduction (39%)
- Luxembourg Province
- Luxembourg
- Anatoliki Makedonia & Thraki, Kentriki Makedonia, Dytiki Makedonia
These continue to record pollution levels well above EU average.
Like air pollution, noise has significant health impacts. Chronic exposure and in particular high noise levels at night can result in sleep disturbance, hypertension, heart disease, and strokes as well as cognitive impairment and annoyance.
The EU has set a target for 2030 to reduce by 30% the share of people chronically disturbed by transport noise. The Environmental Noise Directive provides instruments for regions to address noise pollution.
Berlin, Helsinki and Madrid are the capital regions with the lowest exposure to excessive noise
97% of the population of Cyprus is exposed to excessive noise
Only 10% of residents have benefited from a reduction in noise
As data only exist for urban areas, where transport noise must be mapped, the dashboard shows the 27 EU regions in which capital cities are located.
Find out more about noise pollution in your region
The EEA is provides more detailed information on noise pollution.
Poor bathing water quality can affect human health. It restricts use of the water for swimming, boating and other leisure activities. Excellent bathing water quality is a driver for tourism and the regional economy.
The EU has not set a target for 2030 but the Bathing Water Directive sets minimum requirements for water quality and an ambition to achieve ‘excellent bathing water quality’. The evaluation of the Bathing Water Directive provides an overview of how fit for purpose the Directive is and how it can be improved further.
46% of regions report excellent quality for all or nearly all their bathing sites
Nearly 1/2 have seen an increase in excellent quality bathing sites
26 regions have no designated bathing sites, thus the quality of bathing waters in these regions cannot be assessed
The five regions who have seen the largest increase in excellent quality bathing waters between 2018 and 2022 are:
Find out more about bathing water in your region
The EEA provides annual updates on the bathing water quality in the EU.
Nutrients are needed for agriculture. Spreading chemical fertilisers and manure on fields can lead to a higher concentration of nitrates in groundwater if more is used than plants can take up.
Groundwater is a major source of the drinking water in Europe. High concentrations of nitrates in drinking water are harmful for human consumption. Before polluted groundwater can be used for drinking water, it requires significant treatment, which increases the costs for consumers.
The EU set a 2030 Zero Pollution target reduce nutrient losses by 50%. In addition, EU legislation requires that concentrations of nitrates in groundwater be less than 50 mg/l. An ongoing evaluation is checking how fit for purpose the Nitrates Directive is and how it can be improved.
The dashboard shows the percentage of monitoring stations in a region recording above 50 mg/l of Nitrogen. All values above zero indicate that these regions are in breach of legislation.
Only 16% of regions (37) did not exceed the legal threshold for nitrates pollution
1 in 4 regions recorded nitrates pollution above the legal threshold in 20% or more of their monitoring stations
Find out more about nitrates pollution in your region
The European Commission's Joint Research Centre publishes the data reported under the Nitrates Directive in a dashboard. The EEA provides data on nutrients in freshwater.
Air emissions can travel long distances and affect biodiversity and ecosystems far away from the places where the pollution occurs. Nitrogen is one such pollutant. It comes from ammonia (NH3) from agriculture and nitrogen oxides (NOx) from combustion. Excess nitrogen on land can cause eutrophication, which is harmful to ecosystems, such as forests and grasslands, impacting species diversity.
The EU set a 2030 Zero Pollution target to reduce by 25% the EU ecosystems where air pollution threatens biodiversity.
An ongoing evaluation is checking how fit for purpose National Emission-reduction Commitments Directive is and how it can be improved.
The dashboard shows the average exceedance of critical loads in nitrogen equivalents per hectare by region. The lower the values are, the lower the pollution that affects biodiversity.
All regions have excess nitrogen pollution
1/3 of regions have halved nitrogen between 2005 and 2021
8 regions reduced nitrogen by over 80% between 2005 and 2021
Only 3% of regions have experienced a worsening of pollution, of around 1% to 18%.
Find out more on nitrogen pollution in your region.
The EEA is provides more information on nitrogen pollution from air. The data stem originally from the Coordination Centre for Effects under the UNECE Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP).
Urban wastewater can cause significant pollution if it is released into the environment untreated. It can pollute bathing and drinking water and negatively affects biodiversity and ecosystems.
The EU has not set a zero pollution target. EU legislation aims to prevent, reduce and as far as possible eliminate the environmental impacts from urban wastewater. It requires wastewater to be collected and treated for urban areas with more than 2000 inhabitants.
The revised Urban Waste Water treatment Directive sets out modernised requirements for treatment facilities and collection of sewerage and storm water.
The scoreboard compares progress across regions by looking at the percentage of wastewater in each region or city that is not treated to a high standard (secondary treatment). All values above zero indicate that these regions are in breach of legislation.
Nearly 1/3 of regions collect and clean all their wastewater at least to the level of a secondary treatment
10 regions are still struggling to put in place this minimum level of treatment. There regions are mainly in Croatia and Romania
Find out more about waste water in your region
The EEA provides EU & country profiles as well as detailed maps on urban wastewater treatment efforts in the EU and Member States.
Industrial production is crucial to the EU’s economy. But industry can release air emissions, which contribute to poor health, affect ecosystems negatively and can cause damages to infrastructure.
The EU has not set a zero pollution target, however EU legislation exists to ensure that the environmental impacts from industrial production are minimised by using the Best Available Techniques, which provide high economic value while producing the least emissions. Overall, the target is to prevent, reduce and as far as possible eliminate the pollution from industrial activities. The revised Industrial Emissions Directive sets out modernised requirements for industrial production.
The industrial emissions intensity indicator assesses the damage costs intensity of EU’s large industry air pollution by EUR damage per thousand EUR GVA from air emissions.
75% of regions have reduced emissions between 2017 and 2021
10% increase in damage costs for the least performing regions between 2017 and 2021
Only 1/6 regions recorded low damage costs (<2%) compared to the value added
The top 5 regions with the lowest health and environmental damage costs from industrial emissions are:
Find out more about industrial pollution in your region
The EEA’s Industrial Emissions Portal provides annual environmental performance data from over 60000 industrial installations of 65 economic activities in Europe
Cities play a key role in reducing pollution and improving quality of life, with a majority of Europeans living in urban areas. Due to high population density, city dwellers are particularly affected by the negative impacts of pollution. Over the past decades, the situation has been steadily improving, though significant challenges remain.
This dashboard highlights how the 27 capital cities are performing. Some of these capitals are signatories of the Green City Accord (GCA), a European Commission initiative that supports cities in tackling environmental issues. The GCA cities are frontrunners, demonstrating effective environmental management strategies and leading by example. A recent report outlines the significant progress they have achieved over the past three years. As the number of signatories grows, more environmental data will be available to be included in this dashboard, including for cities beyond the capitals.
Air quality: Half of the capital cities are already now meeting the future (as of 2030) EU air quality standard for fine particulate matter - with reported annual mean levels of PM2.5 at or below 10 micrograms per cubic meter. GCA signatories perform even better, with 80% of them recording annual mean PM2.5 levels below the future standard.
Noise: Over half of the capital cities where data is available meet EU noise reduction targets, with GCA signatories showing similar proportions.
Urban wastewater: A clear majority of capitals (18 out of 26 where data was available) already meet the requirements of EU legislation. The situation is even better among GCA signatories, with 5 out of 6 being compliant.
Bathing water: More progress is needed in this area, as currently only 8 out of 27 capitals are meeting the EU bathing water standards.
How has EU funding helped to reduce pollution?
The EU Cohesion and Regional Development Funds are a long-standing co-financing source for regions to help achieve clean air, water and soil. Significant investments have been made to build and upgrade water infrastructure or reduce air and noise pollution through sustainable transport or clean energy. The Open Data Portal for the European Structural Investment Funds gives the total amounts invested per Member State. You can also find EU projects on waste water treatment or EU projects on clean urban transport.
Best practice projects to promote zero pollution in EU regions and cities have been gathered by the Committee of Regions and by the Commission.
Regions and cities are responsible for implementing 70% of climate mitigation and 90% of climate adaptation policies. For every 10 euros spent on environmental policies, 8 are spent locally. To find regional and urban best practices in promoting Zero Pollution in the EU, visit the European Committee of Regions Best Practice catalogue and the Kohesio data base of regional projects.
Feedback
To help us improve the dashboard, we are interested in your feedback. Please complete this short survey (2 mins) or send us an email to: ENV-ZERO-POLLUTION
ec [dot] europa [dot] eu (ENV-ZERO-POLLUTION[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)