EU greenhouse gas emissions drop

The European Environmental Agency's "Annual European Community greenhouse gas inventory 1990-2005 and inventory report 2007" reports that emissions of greenhouses gases (GHGs) dropped between 2004 and 2005, the latest years for which they have figures. The key findings are:

• EU-15: Emissions of GHGs decreased by 0.8 % between 2004 and 2005.
• EU-27: Emissions of GHGs decreased by 0.7 % between 2004 and 2005.
• EU-15: Emissions of GHGs decreased by 2 % compared to 1990.
• EU-27: Emissions of GHGs decreased by 7.9 % compared to 1990 levels.
• Germany, Finland and the Netherlands contributed most to the EU-15 reduction.

The EU-15 has a common target to reduce GHG emissions by 8% compared to their baseline (usually 1990 emissions). The laggards would seem to be Austria, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain who are all way above their targets. The table below has the GHG emissions by country and their targets. Click it to open in a new window.