Brussels, 29/05/2009 (Agence Europe) - The emissions inventory for 2007 shows that EU15 greenhouse gas emissions dropped by 1.6% from 2006 (for the EU as a whole, the fall was 1.2%). European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas welcomed the news, which puts the EU well on track to meet its Kyoto Protocol target of reducing emissions in the 2008-2012 period to an average of 8% below the base year level, without damaging economic development. “We have managed to separate economic growth from greenhouse gas emissions,” he said on Friday 29 May, pointing out to press that the EU15 economy grew by 2.7% in 2007. The reduction takes EU15 emissions to 5.0% below their levels in the base year (1990 in most cases). EU27 emissions stand 12.5% lower than in the base year (which for some states is not 1990). Dimas acknowledged that the 2007 reductions were in part due to favourable weather conditions in some member states, but, he said, there was a clear downward trend since this was the third consecutive annual fall (emissions dropped by 0.9% in 2005 and by 0.6% in 2006).
The main reasons for the emissions fall in 2007 - totalling 64 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent - were declines in emissions from households, due to warmer weather, and from manufacturing industries and iron and steel production.
By contrast, emissions related to refrigeration and air conditioning rose. The majority of sectors have recorded emission reductions between the base year and 2007.
Emissions from industrial processes were down 14.1%, from energy without transport by 7.4%, from use of solvents and other products 23.7%, from agriculture 11.3% and from waste 38.9%. By contrast, emissions from transport in general rose by 23.7% and from road transport by 24.7%.
Country performances were, however, mixed, with some not managing to reduce emissions. Within the EU15, this was the case for Greece and Spain, while in the EU12 only Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia recorded a fall compared with 2006.
The data have been submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. They are available on the European Environment Agency site: http://www.eea.europa.eu (A.B./transl.rt)