ETC CE Report 2023/8 Consumption and the environment in Europe’s circular economy

13 Jun 2023

Saskia Manshoven, An Vercalsteren, Maarten Christis, Annelise De Jong, Imke Schmidt, Francesca Grossi, Anna Tenhunen, Lars Fogh Mortensen

This ETC CE report provides the detailed analysis underpinning the EEA briefings "Environment and climate pressures from household consumption in Europe" and “Conditions and pathways for sustainable and circular consumption in Europe".

Europe and the world face unprecedented sustainability challenges, largely as a result of unsustainable consumption. Since consumption levels in Europe are expected to continue to rise, technological gains and further efficiency improvements appear to be insufficient to keep environmental and climate pressures within sustainable limits. A more circular economy in Europe has the potential to reduce environmental and climate pressures and impacts from our consumption, but will require substantially transforming consumption and production systems. This report show trends in European household consumption and its resulting environmental and climate pressures and explores conditions and pathways to move to sustainable and circular consumption in Europe.