Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022;15(8):1333-1340.
doi: 10.1007/s11869-022-01156-5. Epub 2022 Jan 8.

European Union policies and their role in combating climate change over the years

Javier Cifuentes-Faura  1
Affiliations
Review

European Union policies and their role in combating climate change over the years

Javier Cifuentes-Faura. Air Qual Atmos Health. 2022.

Abstract

The worrying environmental situation and increased public awareness in recent years have led many countries to take measures to reduce negative impacts on the environment. The European Union (EU) has been one of the most active in environmental protection with the formulation of policies aimed at preserving the health and well-being of citizens and protecting natural resources. One of the objectives of environmental policies is to make the economy of its member states more environmentally friendly, although this requires finding solutions to major challenges such as climate change, the scarcity of natural resources, the emission of polluting gases, and unsustainable consumption and production. This article reviews the main policies that have been implemented in the EU to reduce environmental problems and the scope of climate change conferences. It offers solutions to promote sustainability that could be adopted by companies, individuals, and governmental institutions to jointly contribute to achieving a more sustainable world, where problems such as climate change or the emission of polluting gases are minimized. The aim is to follow the principles of the Circular Economy and the European Green Deal.

Keywords: Circular economy; Climate change; Environmental policies; European Green Deal; European Union.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interestsThe author declares no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Elements of The European Green Deal. Source: European Commission (2019)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Aggestam F, Giurca A. The art of the “green” deal: policy pathways for the EU Forest Strategy. For Policy Econ. 2021;128:102456. doi: 10.1016/j.forpol.2021.102456. - DOI
    1. Barbier, EB., Burgess, JC. (2017). The Sustainable Development Goals and the systems approach to sustainability. Economics:11(1).
    1. Becchetti, L., Piscitelli, P., Distante, A., Miani, A., Uricchio, A. F. (2021). European Green Deal as social vaccine to overcome COVID-19 health & economic crisis. The Lancet Regional Health-Europe, 2. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Brodny J, Tutak M. The comparative assessment of sustainable energy security in the Visegrad countries. A 10-year perspective. J Clean Prod. 2021;317:12842. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.128427. - DOI
    1. Chiaramonti D, Talluri G, Vourliotakis G, Testa L, Prussi M, Scarlat N. Can Lower Carbon Aviation Fuels (LCAF) Really Complement Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) towards EU Aviation Decarbonization? Energies. 2021;14:6430. doi: 10.3390/en14196430. - DOI

LinkOut - more resources