The benefits of improving the environment in EU neighbourhood countries

There is major potential for European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) countries to improve their environment and catalyse the transition to a green economy. This will benefit not just the environment (including water and air quality, conservation status, forest health and soil quality), but also health and wellbeing, livelihoods (jobs and community viability), economics and finance, and good governance.

This was the key message from a study on the socio-economic benefits of enhanced environmental protection in the ENP countries and the Russian Federation conducted for the European Commission’s DG AidCo by IEEP, Arcadis Belgium, ERM, Metroeconomica and Ecologic Institute, in collaboration with a wide range of national and international experts.

The project provided a first assessment of the benefits stemming from improvements in air and water quality, waste management, biodiversity protection and climate change mitigation. Sixteen country reports and two regional summary reports were prepared together with a Benefit Assessment Manual for policy makers, detailing the methodologies that were developed and applied under the project.

Among its key results, the study found that the reduction of air pollution could save between 50,000 and 150,000 lives per year across the ENP countries. In the water sector, improved drinking water quality, hygiene practices and household sewage connection could lead to benefits of €9 to 21 billion per year. Improvements in waste management could create up to 25,000 jobs and prevent the emission of around 10 billion m3 of methane from landfills, while around 450 million tonnes of CO2 could be avoided should ENP countries move to a 20 per cent renewable share of the energy mix by 2020.

The project’s reports are now available on the project website. A summary paper will also soon be issued under IEEP’s Directions in European Environmental Policy (DEEP) series.

Contacts: Patrick ten Brink