Two thirds of Europeans want EU to do more on environment

The environment is something Europeans care deeply about: two thirds of them would like the European Union (EU) to do more on environmental protection, showed a recent survey.

According to the Eurobarometer survey commissioned by the European Parliament, 67 percent of respondents expressed support for more EU action on environmental action, compared to 59 percent in Britain and 62 percent in Ireland.

As the largest group of developed countries in the world, the EU is able to act in most areas of environmental policy, such as air and water pollution, waste management and climate change. However, more than half (52 percent) consider current EU action insufficient.

Giovanni La Via, chair of the environment committee in the European Parliament, said: "We share the concerns of our citizens, as seen in the Eurobarometer and are, for this reason, very committed to work on new policies and proposals to fight climate change and safeguard the environment."

He added that the EU has had a crucial impact on the agreement concluded at the COP21 summit in Paris last year and is now developing all the policies to effectively turn it into acts.

The EU institutions are currently implementing the Paris agreement, including a reform of the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme; a target to reduce the EU's greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent by 2030; and EU legislation promoting renewable energy.

In the wake of the Volkswagen scandal, the European Parliament set up an inquiry committee to investigate the scandals of falsified car emissions measurements.

The European Parliament also recently adopted new rules on energy efficiency labeling for household appliances to make it easier for consumers to select what they want.

The survey was conducted among 27,969 people from all over the European Union (EU) earlier this year. Endit