Convergence in environmental dimensions (backward looking)Forthcoming

This report explores how environmental performance has converged – or diverged – among the EU Member States since the early 2000s. With environmental goals piling up at the EU level, is it reasonable to expect Member States to adhere to this emerging EU environmental aquis? And, just as importantly, can we expect Member States to reach these goals at the same time? This report attempts to provide answers to these and other questions high on the political agenda. It shows that for the majority of environmental indicators under scrutiny in the report, there has been improvements in terms of both performance and convergence among Member States. However, certain measures paint a less rosy picture – for example, measures of residential quality and energy poverty, issues which have become increasingly topical in the last year with the hike in fuel prices and onset of cost-of-living crises in Europe. The research underlying this report is drawn from work carried out by Eurofound and the European Environmental Agency (EEA).