29.09.2025 – The Europe’s Environment 2025 report shows that although progress has been made, Europe continues to face major challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss and the overuse of resources. Switzerland is following a similar trajectory: while air quality and forest health are improving, the ecological footprint per capita remains above sustainable levels.
Every five years, the European Environment Agency (EEA) publishes its flagship Europe’s Environment report, gathering and analysing data on the state of the environment across Europe to ensure comparability. The 2025 edition includes a main report offering an integrated analysis of environmental and climate trends, examining key challenges and pathways for ecological transition by 2050. It also features country profiles with national assessments – including Switzerland’s – alongside an overview of trends and outlooks across 35 environment- and climate-related topics.
Switzerland has been a full member of the EEA and the European Environment Information and Observation Network (Eionet) since 2006. It benefits from the EEA’s expertise and assessments while contributing its own data, which is incorporated into the EEA’s analyses and publications.
The environment in Europe in 2025
The Europe’s Environment 2025 report analyses data from 38 countries on key environmental issues, including climate, biodiversity, and air, water and soil quality, as well as pressures from sectors such as energy, transport, agriculture, housing, production and consumption.
Although progress has been made, Europe still faces serious challenges. Biodiversity continues to decline across terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems while natural resources remain under intense pressure, and Europe is the region where global warming is advancing most rapidly. The carbon absorption capacity of forests and soils has dropped by around 30% compared to the previous decade, underscoring the urgent need to adapt our societies and economies.
The central challenge in the years ahead will be to fundamentally transform production and consumption systems to ensure prosperity and well-being within the planet’s ecological limits.
The environment in Switzerland in 2025
Like the rest of Europe, Switzerland faces considerable ecological pressures. Environmental policy has delivered improvements, including better air quality, increased forest biodiversity and a 33% reduction in the environmental footprint per capita since 2000.
However, this reduction does not go far enough, as Switzerland’s environmental impact still exceeds planetary boundaries. The main challenges are climate change, biodiversity loss and the overuse of natural resources, with two thirds of Switzerland’s environmental footprint linked to final demand occurring abroad.
To tackle these challenges, Switzerland is strengthening its legislative framework, including the CO₂ Act and the revised Environmental Protection Act, alongside targeted sectoral strategies. Concrete measures include the Action Plan against Food Waste, the Bicycle Paths Act, and national healthy and resource-efficient dietary recommendations.
Transitioning to a more sustainable economy also requires initiatives that promote repair, reuse, sharing models, and less resource-intensive lifestyles and working practices.
What is the global environmental impact footprint?
It measures the overall impact of Swiss final demand both domestically and abroad, including the raw materials and energy required to produce consumer goods, as well as the land and water resources used for housing, transport, and food for humans and animals.
Although the global environmental impact footprint fell by 33% between 2000 and 2022, it remains nearly three times higher than the threshold value for sustainable resource use. This threshold is based primarily on planetary boundaries, Switzerland's environmental policy goals and an extrapolation of Swiss consumption to the global level.
The reduction achieved so far is not sufficient to meet the 2030 threshold, nor the 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goal on sustainable resource use. Moreover, current efforts do not address all environmental areas, so this progress should be viewed in context.
Towards a more circular and resilient economy
Between 2000 and 2022, Switzerland’s circular material utilisation rate rose by more than 60%, from 8.3% to around 13.5%. After a period of steady growth up to 2018, the rate has since stabilised between 13% and 14%.
This stagnation is largely due to market factors, such as lower prices for primary resources and limited demand for recycled materials. Even with optimal recovery rates, recycled materials currently meet only around one fifth of demand.
This highlights the need for complementary approaches to strengthen the circular economy, including more efficient resource use, energy-saving technologies, sustainable consumption models such as rental or sharing, and extending product lifespans through eco-design.
A key development in Switzerland is the 2024 revision of the Environmental Protection Act, which establishes a clear legal basis for promoting circularity. As elsewhere in Europe, continued efforts are needed, but this revision provides tangible leverage to accelerate the shift towards a more circular and resilient economy.
Reduced health impacts from air pollution
Air quality in Switzerland has improved markedly in recent decades, thanks to effective emission reduction policies. Since 2005, average population exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) has halved, although year-to-year variations persist because of weather conditions. Switzerland has met the reduction targets set by the Gothenburg Protocol for 2020 and beyond. With the exception of ozone, legal air quality standards – which are largely aligned with the WHO's 2005 recommendations – are now widely met.
This improvement has led to a 60% drop in premature deaths linked to fine particulate matter since 2005. However, a study commissioned by the FOEN suggests that meeting the new WHO guidelines published in 2021 would yield significant additional health benefits.
Although Switzerland has set quantified targets for reducing air pollutant emissions, it has not yet established national targets for reducing premature mortality due to pollution.
Further informations
Last modification 29.09.2025
