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(4) According to the European Environment Agency (EEA) in its report ‘The European environment – state and outlook 2020, Knowledge for transition to a sustainable Europe’ (‘SOER 2020’), there is a unique window of opportunity for the Union in the next decade to show global leadership on sustainability by tackling the urgent sustainability challenges that require systemic solutions. Systemic change entails a fundamental, transformative and cross-cutting form of change that implies major shifts and reorientation in system goals, incentives, technologies, social practices and norms, as well as in knowledge systems and governance approaches. As stated in SOER 2020, one of the most important factors underlying Europe’s persistent environmental and sustainability challenges is that they are inextricably linked to economic activities and lifestyles, in particular the societal systems that provide Europeans with necessities such as food, energy and mobility. Ensuring policy coherence with, and full implementation of, existing environmental policies would take Europe a long way to achieving its environmental goals up to 2030 and achieving the UN 2030 Agenda and its SDGs.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-07 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.