Analysis: Six EU Countries Have Already Exceeded their 2020 GHG Emissions Limit, Eight More Are on the Verge
EU countries are split when it comes to controlling greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and staying on track to meet the regulations set by the EU for 2020. While a majority of EU countries are doing well to limit their total GHG emissions, a lot of other EU countries are polluting excessively.
Ever since the start of the century, the EU has set goals and targets for each of its 28 member states to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, so that the EU achieves its goal of having a 20% total reduction in GHG emissions for 2020. GreenMatch has done research on the various EU countries’ performances based on the data published by Eurostat and has created visual elements to display the biggest and smallest emitters of GHGs in the EU.
National Greenhouse Gas Emissions Per Capita in the EU
The three countries with the lowest GHG emissions per capita are Sweden, Malta, and Romania. The three countries with the highest GHG emissions per capita are Ireland, Estonia, and Luxembourg.
2020 Targets: How EU Countries Are Performing
According to figures from Eurostat, 71% of the best performing EU countries were given an increased target limit. 21% of the worst-performing EU countries were requested to reduce their overall emission rate. The 2020 targets that were set are based on the countries’ wealth and emission rates from 2005
The countries who fared quite well from the figures by Eurostat were the UK, Spain, and Italy, as they were requested to decrease their emissions limit and managed to stay well within the targets set by the EU.
The three countries’ emissions vs targets in the index numbers are as follows:
- United Kingdom has a target limit of 75.3, and their result in 2017 was 62.4, which is 17.2% below the proposed threshold for 2020.
- Spain has a target limit of 138.9, and its result in 2017 was 121.8, which is 12.3% below the proposed threshold for 2020.
- Italy has a target limit of 98.2, and their result in 2017 was 84.1, which is 14.4% below the proposed threshold for 2020.
On the other hand, countries like Ireland, Cyprus, and Austria were requested to reduce their emission rates, yet exceeded their 2020 target limits already by 2017:
- Ireland has a target limit of 102 and their result in 2017 was 112.9, which is 10.69% above the proposed threshold for 2020.
- Cyprus has a target limit of 151.1 and their result in 2017 was 155.7, which is 3.01% above the proposed threshold for 2020.
- Austria has a target limit of 99.8 and its result in 2017 was 106.2, which is 6.42% above the proposed threshold for 2020.
If they do not reduce their emissions by 2020, they have a risk of not fulfilling EU targets.
Overall, the EU countries are split on when it comes to controlling emissions and meeting the goals set by the EU. The average EU country is only a margin away from exceeding their emissions over the target limit (78.3 index in emission vs 80 index in target limit for 2020) and those were results from the latest dataset (2017). This means that half of the EU countries are on a bad trajectory for 2020 and beyond.
For a more in-depth analysis made by Greenmatch, you can read GreenMatch’s blog post here.
Germans Frolovs
Communications Assistant at GreenMatch
gf@greenmatch.co.uk
Phone: 020 3608 0130