Brussels, 29/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - In 2011, the greenhouse gas emissions of the EU fell by 3.3% - a record drop and even higher than initially estimated, according to the inventory of verified emissions, compiled and published on Wednesday 29 May by the European Environment Agency (EEA), which has reported its data to the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
“This is good news; however, it was largely due to a warmer winter”, explains Jacqueline McGlade, Executive Director of the EEA, who did however acknowledge that the EU has made clear progress towards its emission targets under the Kyoto protocol (reduction of 20% by 2020).
Furthermore, although the consumption of fossil fuels in the EU fell by 5% in 2011, the average carbon intensity of solid fuels used, such as coal and lignite, rose by nearly 2% in the same year.
Nearly two thirds of the drop in emissions in the year 2011 was accounted for by the United Kingdom, France and Germany. Romania, Bulgaria and Spain, on the other hand, recorded the greatest increases in volumes of emissions. In 2011, the level of greenhouse gas emissions in the EU was 18.4% lower than in 1990. (AN/transl.fl)