Our concern for the environment grows every day, as we become increasingly aware of the need to safeguard it in the interest of our own health and the local quality of life, and to tackle global challenges such as climate change and the depletion of natural resources.

State of the environment reports provide policy makers with a tool, among others, to help them outline implementable policies. The data from these reports can also be used to promote awareness of the environmental issues among the various socio-economic actors and the public, and to facilitate their transition to alternative methods of production and consumption which are less harmful to the environment, either on a local level or in a broader context.

Striving towards environmental quality in Europe, every Member State, or their regions, should therefore draw up an environmental balance sheet. The reports on the state of the Brussels environment which you are about to look through, fall within this framework. They constitute summaries of objective and statistical data describing and analysing the state of the different Brussels environmental aspects (air, biodiversity, soil, water, etc.) and examining their trends, the pressure they experience and the resulting impact.  

Every two years the regional administration ‘Brussels Environment’ (legal name IBGE-BIM) assesses the current environmental situation of the Brussels-Capital Region (BCR). It publishes this track record of the state of the environment on its internet site either as detailed report or as summary report. Visual aids for the public on this subject can be found in the En Bref-In ‘t kort section which has a more a dynamic layout. For more explanation on legal context and methodology we refer to the French or Dutch section.