EU holds the line as world CO2 emissions rocket

Citation

(2006), "EU holds the line as world CO2 emissions rocket", Management of Environmental Quality, Vol. 17 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/meq.2006.08317aab.001

EU holds the line as world CO2 emissions rocket

EU holds the line as world CO₂ emissions rocket

World energy-related carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions rose by 4.5 per cent last year, their fastest rate since 2000, according to first estimates by German economics institute DIW. The figures show that EU-15 emissions climbed only marginally in 2004 after increasing significantly in 2003. DIW’s early review of 2004 data confirms China as the current major driver of global emissions growth. It released an extra 579m tonnes of CO₂ in 2004, a year-on-year increase of 15 percent. In comparison, world emissions increased by 1.2bn tonnes to stand at 27.5bn tonnes, or 26 percent above their 1990 level.

Emissions growth in industrialised countries in 2004 was far less rampant. Energy-related CO₂ rose by 1.3 percent across the OECD area, DIW reported. In the USA it increased by 1.4 percent. In the old EU-15 countries it rose by 0.7 percent, less than half the rate of increase in 2003, according to official EU figures.

Meanwhile, DIW estimates that EU-15 emissions of all six Kyoto greenhouse gases rose by just 0.3 percent in 2004, again well down on their 1.3 percent increase in 2003 according to official EU figures. According to the German institute, EU-15 emissions are now 1.4 percent below their 1990 level compared with a commitment to −8 percent by 2010.

Across all countries bound to limit greenhouse gas emissions by the Kyoto protocol, total output was 4.1 percent below the 1990 level in 2004, DIW reports. This compares with the overall commitment by these countries to an aggregate 5.2 percent emissions reduction by 2010.