CORDIS Archive

August 2003

Greenhouse gas: a report card

The European Environmental Agency gives a progress report on the success of EU member states and candidates countries in meeting their targets under the Kyoto Protocol to cut the harmful gases blamed for global warming.

However, the European Union is proceeding as if the protocol will come into legal force, which is expected to occur after Russia finally ratifies the accord as promised this year. Russia's signature will mean that countries creating more than 55% of the world's greenhouse gases will have ratified the treaty, the threshold laid down by the UN for the pact to come into force.

But the EU, an early supporter of Kyoto, is not waiting for the Russians to climb on board. It has already agreed to reduce its emissions by 8% from 1990 levels by 2008-2012 and has implemented measures to achieve that target. But, with just five years to go before the first deadline, is the EU making significant progress?

The European Environment Agency, which monitors the EU's progress in meeting its international environmental commitments, has just released its latest report card for the period 1999-2000. In a nutshell, the message behind the plethora of tables and graphs is that, while progress has been good, some countries could try harder.

The agency reports that total EU greenhouse gas emissions in 2000 were 0.3% above those in 1999, although they were still 3.5% below 1990 levels. It blames the jump on more coal being used for electricity generation, fuelled by faster economic growth. This rise was lessened by a relatively mild winter in Europe.

Performance across the EU, however, was not uniform. In 2000, six member states - Luxembourg, Germany, the United Kingdom, Finland, Sweden and France - were on track to fulfil their Kyoto targets, with Luxembourg registering a massive 45.1% reduction in its greenhouse gas emissions in 2000 compared to 1999.

Nine countries had slipped behind, with Spain, Ireland and Portugal the worst offenders. Spain, for example, had increased its greenhouse gas emissions in the 12 months to 2000 by 4.1%, earning a scowling emoticon from the EEA.

Yet Spain's emissions look environmentally friendly when compared to those of Germany and the United Kingdom. Despite reducing emissions by 19% and 12.9% respectively in 2000, Germany and the UK are still the EU's biggest polluters, accounting for about 40% of all EC greenhouse gas emissions.

The EEA's report is full of such interesting facts. It not only analyses the performance of each EU member state, but of the 10 candidate countries. Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Poland and Slovakia reduced their greenhouse gas emissions substantially in 1999 compared to 1998.

It also reports on the most significant sources of greenhouse gas. Not surprisingly, the energy industries account for some 27% of all emissions, while cars and lorries produce a further 20%. On the transport front, environmentalists can at least take some solace from the fact that 2000 was the first year in the past decade in which traffic emissions did not increase. Not a bad achievement considering that passenger car traffic rose by 17% and (and freight transport 42%) between 1990 and 1999.