Romania Environment - 2024

Environment - current issues

soil erosion, degradation, and desertification; water pollution; air pollution in south from industrial effluents; contamination of Danube delta wetlands

Environment - international agreements

party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Heavy Metals, Air Pollution-Multi-effect Protocol, Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Antarctic-Environmental Protection, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 2006, Wetlands, Whaling

signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Climate

temperate; cold, cloudy winters with frequent snow and fog; sunny summers with frequent showers and thunderstorms

Land use

agricultural land: 60.7% (2018 est.)

arable land: 39.1% (2018 est.)

permanent crops: 1.9% (2018 est.)

permanent pasture: 19.7% (2018 est.)

forest: 28.7% (2018 est.)

other: 10.6% (2018 est.)

Urbanization

urban population: 54.7% of total population (2023)

rate of urbanization: -0.15% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)

Revenue from forest resources

0.16% of GDP (2018 est.)

Revenue from coal

0.03% of GDP (2018 est.)

Air pollutants

particulate matter emissions: 13.3 micrograms per cubic meter (2019 est.)

carbon dioxide emissions: 69.26 megatons (2016 est.)

methane emissions: 27.62 megatons (2020 est.)

Waste and recycling

municipal solid waste generated annually: 4.895 million tons (2015 est.)

municipal solid waste recycled annually: 277,547 tons (2015 est.)

percent of municipal solid waste recycled: 5.7% (2015 est.)

Major rivers (by length in km)

Dunărea (Danube) river mouth (shared with Germany [s], Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Moldova, and Ukraine) - 2,888 km
note – [s] after country name indicates river source; [m] after country name indicates river mouth

Major watersheds (area sq km)

Atlantic Ocean drainage: (Black Sea) Danube (795,656 sq km)

Total water withdrawal

municipal: 1.09 billion cubic meters (2020 est.)

industrial: 3.9 billion cubic meters (2020 est.)

agricultural: 1.43 billion cubic meters (2020 est.)

Total renewable water resources

212 billion cubic meters (2020 est.)

Geoparks

total global geoparks and regional networks: 2

global geoparks and regional networks: Buzău; Haţeg (2023)