Every five years the European Environment Agency (EEA) publishes its report on the state of Europe’s environment, “Europe’s environment 2025”, which provides science-based insights into the state of Europe’s environment and climate and into socio-economic developments.
The report is the most comprehensive analysis of the current state and outlook of the continent’s environment, climate and sustainability, based on data from 38 countries.
The publication is prepared in close cooperation with experts and scientists from the EEA’s European Environment Information and Observation Network (EIONET), covering the 32 EEA member countries and six cooperating countries. In addition to the overall overview, it includes an analysis of each individual European country.
The report emphasises that, despite challenges, Lithuania is becoming a firm participant in the green transformation and is demonstrating progress in the areas of climate, energy, biodiversity and sustainability. Since 1990, Lithuania’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have fallen by more than 62%, and per-capita emissions are well below the EU average.
Although the transport and agriculture sectors remain the main polluters, Lithuania is actively switching to renewable energy sources: the share of renewables in gross electricity consumption rose from 26.5% in 2022 to 36.2% in 2023.
Forests cover almost a third of the country’s territory, and protected areas now cover 18.5% of its area following the addition of new Natura 2000 sites. The report stresses, however, that biodiversity in Lithuania is under pressure from land-use change and the spread of invasive species.
The report also notes that Lithuania is modernising its waste management and circular economy systems. Municipal waste generation has decreased since 2021, and the collection of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) almost doubled between 2018 and 2021.
The full report is available here.