By Tim Laws, Water
September 10, 2024
Source: EEA
Photo Source: Unsplash,
Our climate is changing because of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere. Despite notable emission reductions over the last decades, the EU must transform production and consumption systems to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.
EU Member States have put in place 3,000 policies and measures to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. National climate change mitigation strategies, policies and other accompanying measures are also in development. These include targets for greenhouse gas emissions in key sectors of the economy, promoting the use of renewable energy and low carbon fuels, energy efficiency improvements in buildings, and many more.
They project that measures already in place across Europe would lead to a reduction of 43% in 2030 for total net greenhouse gas emissions including international aviation, while further measures that are currently being planned would boost reductions to 48%.
Achievements in emission reductions vary across sectors too. Most EU sectors reduced greenhouse gas emissions over the past three decades, with the highest reductions in the energy supply sector. Still, agriculture and transport struggle to reduce emissions:
Following six years of steady growth in greenhouse gas emissions from the EU’s transport sector, transport emissions dropped substantially in 2020 because of reduced activity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Preliminary estimates of emissions in 2021 indicate a rebound of 8.6% in transport, followed by further growth of 2.7% in 2022.
Agriculture greenhouse gas emissions were stable from 2005 to 2021. National policies and measures in place across the EU are expected to deliver further reductions of only 1.5% by 2040.
The EU also achieved its target for renewable energy. By 2022, 22.5% of our energy consumed came from renewable sources, and 40% was energy production. For energy efficiency, the EU-27 overachieved the target in its final year, after an initial slow start.
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