New EU-scale environmental scenarios until 2050 – Scenario process and initial scenario applications
As part of the Openness project, new EU scenarios focusing on natural capital and ecosystem services were developed. These were applied at different regional socio-environmental conditions…
Exploring future changes in land use and land condition and the impacts on food, water, climate change and biodiversity: Scenarios for the UNCCD Global Land Outlook
The pressure on land is growing in many regions of the world, due to the increasing demand for arable crops, meat and dairy products, bio-energy and timber, and is exacerbated by land degradation and…
Perspectives on the future of nature in Europe: storylines and visualisations
The occurrence of many species in the EU is expected to decline further, making it difficult to achieve the 2050 policy vision. The Nature Outlook study elaborates four perspectives on the future of…
BioScore 2.0, a species-by-species model to assess anthropogenic impacts on terrestrial biodiversity in Europe
The BioScore 2.0 model analyses impacts of human-induced pressures on European terrestrial biodiversity. The model can be used for scenario analysis and the assessment of policy options. This report…
Trends in Global Vegetation Activity and Climatic Drivers Indicate a Decoupled Response to Climate Change
Detailed understanding of a possible decoupling between climatic drivers of plant productivity and the response of ecosystems vegetation is required. We compared trends in six NDVI metrics (1982–2010)…
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats: A SWOT analysis of the ecosystem services framework
The ecosystem services concept is a cornerstone of contemporary sustainability thought. Challenges with this concept and its applications are well documented, but have not been systematically assessed…
Impacts of European livestock production: nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus and greenhouse gas emissions, land-use, water eutrophication and biodiversity
Livestock production systems currently occupy around 28% of the land surface of the European Union (equivalent to 65% of the agricultural land). In conjunction with other human activities, livestock…
Nitrogen pollution costs the European Union between €70 billion and €320 billion per year. This cost is more than double the value that nitrogen fertilizers are estimated to add to European farm…
For the last five years, scientists across Europe have chronicled the little-known nitrogen dilemma and the threats it poses to our environment and health – as well as how we can solve the problem.