EU emissions fall as 2030 package agreed

• 10 years ago (2014-10-29)
• Junior Isles

Europe 1089 Renewables 776

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The European Union’s environment agency says its greenhouse gas emissions fell by nearly two per cent last year, putting the bloc very close to reaching its emissions target for 2020.

The European Environment Agency said emissions already have fallen 19 per cent, meaning the 28-nation bloc is likely to exceed its target. That goal is to reduce emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases by 20 per cent compared to 1990 levels.

The EEA projected that 2020 emissions will be 21 per cent or 24 per cent lower than they were in 1990, depending on whether planned climate action is implemented in full.

However, Germany and Spain were among some countries that were not on track to meet their national targets.

The EEA said the EU as a whole also was on track to meet its goals on getting 20 per cent of its energy from renewable sources such as wind, solar and hydropower by 2020, and of improving energy efficiency by 20 per cent.

Nine member states — Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Britain — are on track to meet targets for all three climate and energy policy objectives.

Last week the EU set new goals for 2030: 40 per cent emissions cuts, 27 per cent renewables and a 27 per cent on energy efficiency.

The deal is aimed at countering climate change and setting an example for the rest of the world ahead of key international climate negotiations next year.

The 2030 climate and energy package agreed by leaders at an EU summit in the early hours of Friday after lengthy negotiations. Poland and other poorer eastern European nations were concerned on how to fund the necessary changes. Almost 90 per cent of Poland’s electricity comes from coal.

“It was not easy, not at all, but we managed to reach a fair decision,” said European Council President Herman Van Rompuy. “It sets Europe on an ambitious yet cost-effective climate and energy path.”

The decision makes the EU the first major economy to set post-2020 emissions targets ahead of a global climate pact that is supposed to be adopted next year in Paris.

Green lobbyists, however, said the package was not ambitious enough.

Joris den Blanken of Greenpeace called it a “very modest” package. “It will mean a slowdown in clean energy development in Europe,” he said.

The EEA said the current projections for 2030 indicate that “further efforts are required” at national and EU level to keep the EU on track toward its new 2030 targets.