According to a recent EEA report co-authored by Ecologic Institute, water stress has become a serious problem across Europe and climate change is likely to raise the challenge. The report "Water resources across Europe – confronting water stress: an updated assessment" calls for a shift from crisis management to risk management to prevent irreversible negative consequences for nature and society. The report emphasizes the need for greater water use efficiency and improved ecosystem resilience, as water resources become insufficient to meet the joint demand of humans and nature.

This report gives a European overview of the main drivers and pressures that are at the core of key water management challenges putting European water bodies most at risk of not achieving key environmental objectives.

As part of its work within the ETC-ICM, Ecologic Institute has contributed as lead author to a new European Environment Agency (EEA) report examining the multiple pressures that agriculture put on Europe's water. The report shows that that a wider uptake of sustainable agricultural practices such as organic farming, agroecological approaches and nature-based solutions is necessary to protect the water environment. To achieve this, ambitious measures to promote sustainable agriculture must be adopted in the upcoming EU common agricultural policy 2021-2027.

Ecologic Institute is member of the European Topic Centre on Inland, Coastal and Marine waters (ETC-ICM) which works with the European Environment Agency (EEA) under a Framework Partnership Agreement for the period from 2019 to 2021.