Article originally published on EcoWatch in August 12th 2015.
Europe’s greenhouse gas
emissions are falling fast, mainly because of the rapid spread of the wind turbines and solar panels that are replacing
fossil fuels for electricity generation.
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| The 110 megawatt Lillgrund wind farm off the coast of southern Sweden. |
European Union (EU) data shows that once
countries adopt measures to reduce greenhouse gases (GHGs),
they often exceed their targets—and this finding is backed up by figures
released this week in a statement by the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The Convention’s
statistics show that the 37 industrialized countries (plus the EU) that signed
up in 1997 to the Kyoto Protocol—the original
international treaty on combating global warming—have frequently exceeded their
promised GHG cuts by a large margin.
Beacon for governments
The UNFCCC statement says, “This is a powerful
demonstration that climate
change agreements not only work, but can drive even higher
ambition over time.”
“The successful
completion of the Kyoto Protocol’s first commitment period can serve as a
beacon for governments as they work towards a new, universal climate change
agreement in Paris, in December this year.”
In the EU, the
leading countries for making savings are Germany, Sweden, France, Italy and Spain, which account for two-thirds
of the total savings on the continent. But most of the 28 countries in the bloc
are also making progress towards the EU’s own target of producing 20 percent of
all its energy needs from renewables by 2020. It has already
reached 15 percent.
Part
of the EU plan to prevent any of the 28 member states backsliding on agreed
targets to reduce GHGs is to measure every two years the effect of various
policies to achieve the reductions.
All
states have to submit details of savings achieved through the
introduction of renewables in electricity production, heating and cooling
systems and transport.
Because of the
time taken to compile the figures, the latest report from the EC Joint Research
Center goes up only to 2012. However, it shows that each year in the three
years up to the end of 2012 GHGs emitted by the EU fell by 8.8 percent as a result
of replacing fossil fuels with renewables.
Two-thirds of
the savings came from the widespread introduction of wind and solar power.
Renewables used for heating and cooling achieved 31 percent of the savings and
transport 5 percent. Most transport renewables came from the use of bio-fuels
instead of petrol and diesel.
Measuring the
progress towards targets is vital for mutual trust between nations in the
run-up to the Paris climate talks. It also gives
politicians confidence that they can make pledges they can keep.
Ambitious goal
The
knowledge that the EU is likely to exceed its target of a 20 percent reduction
of all emissions on 1990 levels by 2020 has led ministers to a more ambitious
goal—total reductions of 40 percent by 2030. A large part of this will come
from the installation of more renewables and energy-efficiency measures.
Across
Europe, emissions vary widely from country to country, with Germany having the
highest and Malta the lowest. Germany also had the greatest absolute reduction
of emissions—a total drop of 23 percent on 1990 levels by 2012.
The
highest emissions per capita were in Luxembourg (20 tons of carbon dioxide per
person), followed by Estonia (12.7), the Czech Republic (10.2), Germany (9.8)
and the Netherlands (9.7).
Just
five member states—Germany, Poland, the UK, Italy and Romania—together produced
two-thirds of the EU’s emissions in 1990. The only change by 2012 was that
Romania had been overtaken by Spain.
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