Ecological Maps of Europe

Contents

1. General Ecological Assessment 1.1 Environmental Performance Index 1.2 Species Protection Index 1.3 Species Habitat Index 1.4 Ecosystem Vitality Index 1.5 Ecological footprint 1.6 GHG intensity growth rate 1.7 Animal Rights Index 2. Recycling 2.1 Waste management 2.2 Recycling rates 2.3 Packaging waste recovery rate 2.4 Packaging waste recycling rate 3. Pollution 3.1 Air Quality Index 3.2 Deaths from air pollution 3.3 Sanitation & drinking water 3.4 Bathing water quality 4. Ecological agriculture & food choices 4.1 Organic Agriculture 4.2 Sustainable pesticide use 4.3 Fairtrade products 4.4 Food sustainability 4.5 Food waste per capita 4.6 Beef consumption 4.7 Percentage of vegetarians 5. Energy production 5.1 Low-carbon primary energy 5.2 Low-carbon electricity 5.3 Renewable energy 5.4 Solar energy 6. Energy efficient homes 6.1 Insufficiently isolated homes 6.2 Homes with triple glazing 6.3 Heat pumps per capita 7. Low-carbon transports 7.1 Electric & alternative fuel buses market share 7.2 Electric & hybrid cars market share 7.3 Average age of cars 8. Energy consumption 58.1 Petrol consumption 8.2 Natural gas consumption 8.3 Total CO2 emissions 8.4 Carbon tax

General Ecological Assessment

Environmental Performance Index (2022)

This map is based on the data from Yale University's Environment Performance Index (EPI) for 2022. As the most comprehensive global environmental analysis ever published, the 2022 EPI leverages 40 performance indicators grouped into 11 issue categories. These issue categories are in turn aggregated into 3 policy objectives: Environmental Health, Ecosystem Vitality, and Climate Change.

Species Protection Index (2022)

This map is based on the data from Yale University's Environment Performance Index (EPI) for 2022. The Species Protection Index (SPI) measures how well a country's terrestrial protected areas overlap with the ranges of its vertebrate, invertebrate, and plant species.

Species Habitat Index (2022)

This map is based on the data from Yale University's Environment Performance Index (EPI) for 2022. The Species Habitat Index (SHI) measures the proportion of suitable habitats for a country's species that remain intact, relative to a baseline set in the year 2001. While the SHI can be calculated for single species, Map of Life aggregates these metrics into a single score, with each species weighted according to the proportion of their global range that is found within the country. This weighting scheme encourages countries to take special care to ensure the protection of rare or endemic species. The SHI serves as a proxy for potential population losses and the extinction risk to individual species. A score of 100 indicates that a country has experienced no habitat loss since the year 2001, and a score of 0 indicates the worst levels of habitat loss.

Ecosystem Vitality Index (2022)

This map is based on the data from Yale University's Environment Performance Index (EPI) for 2022. The Ecosystem Vitality policy objective measures how well countries are preserving, protecting, and enhancing ecosystems and the services they provide. It is made up of six categories: Biodiversity & Habitat, Ecosystem Services, Fisheries, Acid Rain, Agriculture, and Water Resources.

Ecological footprint per person in global hectares (gha) (2016)

This map is based on the data from Global Footprint Network for 2016. Global hectares (gha) are the measurement unit for the ecological footprint of people or activities and the biocapacity of the earth or its regions. A global hectare is a biologically productive hectare (2.471 acres) with world average biological productivity for a given year.

Greenhouse gas intensity growth rate (2022)

This map is based on the data from Yale University's Environment Performance Index (EPI) for 2022. The Greenhouse gas intensity growth rate indicates countries' progress in decoupling emissions from economic growth. This indicator highlights the need for action on climate change mitigation in countries at all income levels. A score of 100 indicates that a country is successfully decoupling, with decreasing GHG intensity (<5th-percentile of all growth rates), and a score of 0 indicates increasing GHG intensity (>95th-percentile).

Animal Rights Index (2021)

This map is based on the scoring system established by The Swiftest for 2021. It takes into account national legislations recognising animal sentience, animal suffering, laws against animal cruelty, fur-farming bans, support for the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare, meat consumption per capita, the percentage of protected areas, pesticide usage per hectare of croplandm and the environmental performance index score.

Recycling

Waste Management Index (Yale - 2022)

This map is based on the data from Yale University's Environment Performance Index (EPI) for 2022. The Waste Management issue category recognizes the threats of solid waste to human and environmental health. It is based on three indicators: controlled solid waste, recycling rates, and ocean plastic pollution.

Municipal waste recycling rates in Europe (Eurostat 2018)

This map was made using data from Eurostat (2018) and other sources.

Municipal waste recycling rates in Europe (Eurostat 2021)

This map was made using data from Eurostat, except for the UK, which came from Gov.uk.

Packaging waste recovery rate (Eurostat 2021)

This map was made using data from Eurostat for 2021. The recovery rate is the recycling rate + 'energy recovery' and ‘incineration with energy recovery’.

Packaging waste recycling rate (Eurostat 2021)

This map was made using data from Eurostat for 2021.

Pollution

Air Quality Index (2022)

This map is based on the data from Yale University's Environment Performance Index (EPI) for 2022. It consists of seven indicators: PM2.5 exposure, household solid fuels, ozone exposure, nitrogen oxides exposure, sulfur dioxide exposure, carbon monoxide exposure, and volatile organic compound exposure.

Percentage of deaths due to air pollution (2017)

This map is based on the data from Our World in Data for 2017.

Quality of sanitation and drinking water (2022)

This map is based on the data from Yale University's Environment Performance Index (EPI) for 2022.

Percentage of bathing waters rated as excellent (2021)

This map is based on the data from European Environment Agency (EEA) for 2021 (2020 for the United Kingdom).

Ecological agriculture & food choices

Percentage of organic agriculture (Eurostat 2021)

This map is based on the data from Eurostat for 2021. Organic argiculture does not use chemicals that are harmful for health and for the environment.

Sustainable pesticide use (2022)

This map is based on the data from Yale University's Environment Performance Index (EPI) for 2022.

Consumption of Fairtrade products per capita (2015)

This map was made using data from FiBL-AMI survey 2017. Fairtrade products promotes sustainable development thanks to higher social and environmental standards in developing countries. Buying Fairtrade coffee, cocoa and bananas in particular help preserving the tropical rainforest and its biodiversity and reduce global warming.

Food Sustainability Index (The Economist & Barilla 2018)

This map is based on the data from Food Sustainability Index developed by the Economist Intelligence Unit in cooperation with Barilla.

Food Sustainability Index (The Economist & Barilla 2021)

This map is based on the data from Food Sustainability Index developed by the Economist Intelligence Unit in cooperation with Barilla.

Food Waste Index (UNEP 2021)

This map is based on the data from UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2021.

Beef consumption per capita in kg per year (2020)

This map is based on the data from the United Nations' FAO for 2020. About 9% of global greenhouse gas emissions are caused by the methane emitted from cattle flatulence. Additionally, large swathes of the Amazon rainforest are being destroyed (usually burned) to expand cattle ranching. Tropical deforestation itself is responsible for 10% of global warming, and about half of it comes from the Amazon region. In other words, nearly 15% of total greenhouse has emissions are caused directly or indirectly by cattle farming. To put this in perspective, the aviation industry is responsible for "only" 3.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. This is why reducing beef consumption is an essential step in fighting climate change. The world's biggest beef eaters by far are the Argentinians, Brazilians, Americans and Australians. From 2013 to 2020, beef consumption has decreased in many European countries, but are still high in Sweden, Denmark, Luxembourg and France.

Percentage of vegetarians

This map is based on the data from Wikipedia and other sources for years ranging from 2017 to 2022.

Energy production & consumption

Share of primary energy consumption from low-carbon sources

This map is based on the data from Our World in Data for 2022. Primary energy is all the energy used for transport, heating and electricity. Low-carbon energy includes nuclear and renewables. As of 2022, 18.2% of the world's primary energy came from low-carbon sources, about the same percentage as those of countries like the United States, China and Turkey. As green electricity is the main source of low-carbon energy, countries with a high percentage of low-carbon primary energy usually also have a high share of electricity as the total of primary energy. This is the case of countries like Norway and Sweden, where respectively 50% and 48% of the primary energy comes from electricity. High levels of adoption of electric vehicles and heat pumps in Norway and Sweden also contributed to this higher share of electrcity in the overall energy mix.

Renewable energy as percentage of primary energy supply (OECD 2020)

This map is based on the data from OECD for 2020. The main difference with the map above is that it does no include nuclear energy, which is low-carbon, but not renewable.

Share of electricity produced from low-carbon sources

This map is based on the data from Wikipedia, combining the percentages of nuclear power and renewable electricity production (following the links for each country for the latest data) as of 2022. Low-carbon sources include nuclear, hydro, wind, solar. Note that electricity is only one part of the overall energy used in a country. In many countries natural gas and petrol are the main source of heating, although this is gradually being replaced by electric heat pumps. Likewise, the majority of vehicles still run on petrol/diesel or natural gas (CNG or LNG), although the share of new electric vehicles has been steadily increasingly in the last few years.

Solar energy as percentage of total consumption

This map is based on the data from Our World in Data for 2022. Solar power is only one of several sources of renewable energy (alongside hydro and wind). Despite its high potential in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries, it is still very underexploited in many countries. The highest percentages in Europe are in Luxembourg (20.3%) and the Netherlands (14.3%), proving that even cloudy countries of northern Europe can obtain a reasonable share of their electricity from solar energy.

Percentage of homes with inadequate insulation

This map was made using data from various sources collected by ChatGPT 4.0 (Eurostat for EU countries) in 2024.

Homes equipped with triple-glazed windows

This map was made using data from various sources collected by ChatGPT 4.0 in 2024.

Heat pumps per 100 people (2022)

This map was made using data from the European Heat Pump Association. In countries where most of the electricity is produced from low-carbon sources (nuclear and/or renewables), heat pumps are much more climate friendly than boilers running on natural gas or petrol. A high adoption rate of heat pumps is especially important in countries or regions with cold winters to reduce the quantity of greenhouse gas emissions.

Total market share of electric & alternative fuel buses (2022)

This map was made data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (AECE) for 2022. The data shows the percentages of e-buses & alternative fuel buses already in circulation, not the percentage among new registrations in 2022. Note that Estonia had 83.7% of alternative fuel buses in its fleet, but not a single electric or hybrid bus. Belgium had the highest share of hybrid buses (40.8%), while Finland had the highest share of battery electric buses (66.9%). Iceland and Cyprus were the only two countries with 100% of diesel buses, although high percentages were also observed in Greece (99.6%), Portugal (96.4%), Croatia (94.1%), Czechia (92%) and Slovenia (90.6%).

Market share of newly registered electric & hybrid cars (2023)

Data for the EU, UK, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Turkey comes from the European Alternative Fuels Observatory. Other sources were used for other countries. Note that the percentages only represent the share of newly registered cars in 2023, not all the cars on the road in a given country.

Average age of vehicle fleet (2018)

This map was made using data from ACEA (2018) and other sources. The automobile industry has been reducing carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions steadily on new car models year after year. This is why newer cars generally not only pollute less but also cause less greenhouse gas emissions than older models.

Petrol (gasoline) consumption per capita in litres per day (2016)

This map is based on the data from Global Petrol Prices for 2016. Note that the data is artificially high for Luxembourg due to the low taxes on petrol and the high number of people from neighbouring countries refuelling their vehicle in Luxembourg to save money.

Natural gas consumption per capita in kWh per year (2023)

This map is based on the data from the Energy Institute via Our World in Data for 2023.

Carbon dioxide emissions in tonnes per capita per year (EDGAR 2022)

This map is based on the data from Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR) for 2018.

Carbon Tax Rates per Metric Tonne of CO2e (World Bank 2024)

This map is based on the data from the World Bank's Carbon Pricing Dashboard as of 2024. Note that countries in the 60-79 range all use the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) of approximately $61.3, except the Netherlands, which has its own carbon tax rate at €66.50 (~$71.48).

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