21 September 2011: The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the European Environment Agency (EEA) have launched an Assessment of Assessments report recommending ways to align environmental information and policy making, with a focus on water and the green economy. The recommendations were issued to the ministers meeting at the seventh Environment for Europe Conference, convening in Astana, Kazakhstan, from 21-23 September 2011.

The EEA produced the report with the support of the UNECE Steering Group on Environmental Assessments. It provides a comprehensive overview of available sources of environmental information across the region, complemented by a series of regional reports focusing on specific pan-European sub-regions.

The themes of the report are water and water-related ecosystems, and greening the economy. It also documents the benefits of a regular reporting process of environmental assessment, based on the shared environmental information system that is a collaborative initiative of the European Commission, the EEA, and EEA member and cooperating countries.

On water, the report concludes that many existing assessments are too restricted to environmental status and trends, and need to focus more on measures and management, especially regarding water scarcity, extreme events and water ecosystems. On the green economy, the report concludes that this is still an emerging concept with, at its core, the idea of revitalizing economies as they emerge from the recent economic crisis while significantly reducing environmental risks and addressing ecological scarcities. The report stresses that information on the green economy is generally fragmented and still limited; while several assessments have looked at environmental impacts of different economic sectors, there remains a notable lack of reports that coherently assess progress towards a green economy across these sectors. [UNECE Press Release] [EEA Press Release] [Publication: “Europe’s Environment – An Assessment of Assessments”]