Report launched: "EUROPE 2005: The Ecological Footprint"

WWF and Global Footprint Network launched "EUROPE 2005: The Ecological Footprint", a report showing that Europe uses 20 percent of the biosphere's services to serve seven percent of the world's population - a resource demand that has risen nearly 70 percent since 1961. Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, has endorsed the report, which will be used to inform a larger EU effort to craft a sustainable development strategy for the region. In the foreword of the report, Barroso also acknowledges the need to understand planetary limits.

According to the report, the EU countries with the highest demand per person are Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Denmark, Ireland, and France, using between three and four times the worldwide average biological capacity available per person. Hungary, Slovakia and Poland have lower demands but are still using about twice the average amount of resources available per person. Further details are available at: http://www.footprintnetwork.org/gfn_sub.php?content=europe2005