Nov. 30, 2008
According to survey data from the European Environment Agency, released June 18, many European countries remain well short of meeting their Kyoto targets for reduced emissions. Of course, only 'old' member states (i.e. EU-15) have a joint Kyoto target of 8 percent below 1990 levels, while there is no formal joint target for today's EU-27.
The EEA's 2006 figures, published after a usual delay of two years, show that the EU-15 reduced emissions by 0.8 percent between 2005 and 2006, while the cumulative total in reductions from 1990 levels is just 2.2 percent.
"This data is alarming," said Sonja Meister, climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe. "The small emission cuts achieved are not the result of real political action but mainly due to warmer weather conditions. Europe needs to seriously step up its action against climate change."
The largest recorded decrease in emissions came from households and the service sector, the result of warmer weather in 2006. Emissions grew the most (0.7 percent) in the road transport sector.
Regarding new member states, nearly all have made significant emissions cuts from 1990, and should easily meet Kyoto targets, but the results are compromised in that these reductions are more the result of economic collapses of the 1990s than effective environmental policies. In fact, roughly 50 percent of Germany's reduced emissions can be attributed to the breakdown of industry in eastern Germany since reunification. There is even the danger that surging economic growth in CEE countries could actually reverse the downward trend of emissions in coming years.
