Digest of EEA indicators 2014

Environmental indicators are essential tools for assessing environmental trends, tracking progress against objectives and targets, evaluating the effectiveness of policies and communicating complex phenomena to non-technical audiences. The last guide to European Environment Agency (EEA) indicators, published in 2005, focused on the Core Set of Indicators (CSI) (EEA, 2005). Since then, the EEA has published a wide range of assessments based on indicators. In addition, many new indicators have been developed, and the evolving European Union (EU) policy context has created new opportunities for their use. This report reflects these developments and provides a comprehensive yet accessible guide to EEA indicators. It acts as a reference document and provides an overview of the EEA indicators, placing them in the context of the wider landscape of European environmental indicators. The report highlights the insights that indicators can provide on progress against environmental priorities. In summary, the digest explains 'what we have, why we have it, and how it can be used'.