The European Union’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions continued to decline in 2020, showing an 11% decrease compared to 2019 and a 34% decrease (or 1.94 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent) compared to the base year 1990, confirm the latest official data published by the European Environment Agency (EEA) on Tuesday 31 May.
This is the largest annual reduction in the EU since 1990.
According to the EEA, the main factors that have reduced EU emissions over the last three decades are the increasing use of renewable energy, the decreasing use of coal, improved energy efficiency, structural changes in the economy and the decreasing demand for heating due to warmer winters in Europe.
For the year 2020, the shutdown of the economy due to the measures taken to combat Covid-19 also had a substantial impact on the reduction of emissions.
However, the EU had already met its target of reducing emissions by at least 20% by 2020 (compared to 1990) by 26% in 2019 before the pandemic-related closures started to impact on emission levels, the agency said.
The EU has set itself the target of reducing its net emissions by at least 55% by 2030.
See the EEA report: https://aeur.eu/f/1ve (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)