By the EESC Sustainable Development Observatory and the European Environment Agency
The European Environment Agency’s (EEA) latest report on ‘The European environment – state and outlook 2020’ (SOER 2020), published on 4 December, states that Europe faces environmental challenges of unprecedented scale and urgency. Europe will not achieve its 2030 goals without ambitious action during the next 10 years to address the alarming rate of biodiversity loss, increasing impacts of climate change and the overconsumption of natural resources.
Accelerating the sustainability transition will require fundamental and far-reaching policy action, engaging all sectors of economy and society to enable systemic change, while leaving no one behind. The need for such far-reaching change is reflected in the Commission’s European Green Deal, which emphasises the importance of ambitious transformations to tackle climate change and environment-related challenges, and the opportunities that these could create for a just and inclusive transition.
The EESC Sustainable Development Observatory and the European Environment Agency will jointly host a public event on 12 February 2020 (9h00-13h00), aiming to engage a broad range of civil society organisations to discuss the core messages of the SOER 2020 report and their implications for actions in support to ongoing policy processes, in particular those related to the European Green Deal.
The event will look at ways to boost the role of civil society for a just transition towards sustainability and to translate knowledge into action. It will also discuss how to foster the engagement and active participation of all stakeholders, including youth, in accelerating the shift towards a more sustainable Europe.
Registrations will open in the week of 13 January.