EU reaches year 2000 stabilisation target for greenhouse gas emissions
The EU has met its commitment under the United Nations framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC) to stabilise emissions of greenhouse gases by the year 2000, according to figures published by the European Environment Agency (EEA) on 29 April. The EEA report shows that total emissions of the gases, blamed for global man-made climate change, were 3.5 per cent lower in 2000 than in the base year 1990. Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström described the findings as 'good news,' but warned that most Member States are still well above their target path for meeting the Kyoto Protocol commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 8 per cent below 1990 levels by 2008 to 2012. She said further efforts and policy measures are needed to meet the Kyoto targets and to reverse the slight rise in emissions which occurred between 1999 and 2000. 'The latest data give a clear signal confirming the need for further action,' she said. The EEA figures show total greenhouse gas emissions stood at 3.5 per cent below their 1990 level in 2000, compared to 3.8 per cent below the base year level in 1999. Emissions of carbon dioxide, which accounts for around 80 per cent of the EU's total greenhouse gas emissions, were 0.5 per cent lower in 2000 than 10 years earlier. The figures show that carbon dioxide emission taken alone increased by 0.5 per cent in the period 1999 to 2000. 'These figures make it clear that in 2000 the EU suffered a slight reversal in its progress towards achieving its Kyoto target,' said EEA Executive Director Domingo Jiménez-Beltrán. 'The situation is now that the EU is slightly less than half way towards reaching the target, with just over half the time gone before the protocol's first compliance period starts in 2008.' One of the main reasons for the overall emissions rise between 1999 and 2000, says the EEA, is an increase in emissions of carbon dioxide from electricity and heat production, due in part to an expansion of power generation from fossil fuels in the UK, the EU's second largest emitter. A growth in greenhouse gas emissions also occurred in Greece, Spain, Ireland, Italy and Belgium. Spain is furthest away from keeping to its share of the EU target - its 2000 emissions stood 33.7 per cent higher than a decade earlier, more than double the 15 per cent increase it is allowed between 1990 and 2008 to 2012. At the other end of the scale Germany, the largest EU emitter, has achieved the greatest emissions cut among the big Member States, recording a 19.1 per cent decrease over the decade. This is not far from the 21 per cent reduction from 1990 levels that Germany is required to show by 2008 to 2012.