On the coast of the Baltic Sea, Latvia has abundant water resources and a rich biodiversity. Forests cover more than half of its territory and biomass is the country’s main domestic energy source along with hydropower.
The country has the 7th largest peat deposits in the world covering 11.7% of its territory and is one of the major exporters of peat for horticulture providing one third of horticultural peat in the EU.
Latvia’s environmental performance has improved considerably in the last two decades since its accession to the EU in 2004. However, waste management and biodiversity protection remain challenging, particularly in terms of diverting municipal waste from landfilling and protecting its forests and peatlands.
Highlights
Progress has been made with initiatives like a beverage packaging deposit system, updates to green public procurement and introduction of extended producer responsibility system for textile products.
The assessment of the 3rd river basin management plans shows an improvement in the ecological status of surface water bodies, indicating some progress on reducing water pollution.
Main Challenges
Circular economy
Latvia faces significant challenges in transitioning to a circular economy, requiring urgent action to boost its circular material use rate, fully implement its policy framework, and adopt upstream circularity measures.
Latvia missed its 2020 recycling target and risks falling short of the 2025 reuse and recycling targets as well as the 2035 landfill reduction goal, with 44% of municipal waste still landfilled.
Nature and biodiversity
Biodiversity goals conflict with economic interests like logging and peat extraction, with fewer than 10% of protected habitats in favourable conservation status and semi-natural grasslands, forests, bogs, and coastal habitats largely in decline due to land-use changes and pressures from forestry and agriculture.
Governance and investment
The current environmental investment gap in Latvia stands at an estimated €1.2 billion per year, representing around 3% of national GDP, considerably higher than the EU-average (0.77%).
Latvia provides wide standing rights to the public regarding environmental matters. With environmental impact assessment report preparation completed within 6 to 18 months and the official decision and explanation from authorities about the environmental impacts of a project finalized in as little as two months, Latvia has one of the fastest impact assessment procedures in the EU.