Archived press release

Dismay as EU greenhouse gas emissions rise

21 June 2005

International efforts to combat global warming took a further blow today after the European Environment Agency revealed that European greenhouse gas emissions are rising [1]. The revelation will increase pressure on Tony Blair who has pledged to lead international efforts to tackle the problem. Next month the Prime Minister will chair the G8 summit at Gleneagles, and the UK will take over Presidency of the EU for the first Meeting of Parties of the Kyoto Protocol in November.

The European Commission published new data today showing greenhouse gas emissions in 2003 for the 15 nations that were EU members in that year [2]. The figures show that:

• Greenhouse gases from the 15 old member (EU-15) states rose by 1.3 per cent. Total EU-25 emissions increased by 1.5 per cent.
• The EU is way off track in meeting its Kyoto protocol target of cutting emissions by eight per cent by 2012. Latest figures show emissions are currently only 1.7 per cent below 1990 levels.

Friends of the Earth's Head of Campaigns, Mike Childs, said:

"These alarming figures show that Europe is failing to take the necessary action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They do not help Tony Blair convince the rest of the world to take tough action on climate change. Time is running out. Unless urgent action is taken on climate change the impacts will ruin countless lives and could wipe out a million species of wildlife."

Although the UK appears to be on track to meet its Kyoto target, provisional figures for 2004 suggest that it will fail unless it reverses the current trend of rising emissions - the UK is already way behind on its domestic target of reducing carbon dioxide by 20 per cent by 2010 from 1990 levels

Notes

[1] http://org.eea.eu.int/documents/newsreleases/ghg_inventory_report-en

[2] The new figures are the greenhouse gas emission figures from 2003, as the data always comes with a delay of two years. They show that while in 2002, emissions in the EU-15 were 2.9% below 1990 levels, in 2003 they were only 1.7% below 1990 levels. In order to meet the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol, EU-15 emissions must be on average at least 8% below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012. A "linear target path" drawn from 1990 to 2010 in order to meet the Kyoto target shows that in 2003 emissions should have been 5.2% lower than they were in 1990, instead of the meagre minus 1.7%. Emissions in 1990 for the EU-15 were 4252.5 Million tonnes. In 2003 they were 4179.6, an increase of 53.3 million tones in 2003 (equivalent to 1.3 per cent increase)

[3] Developing countries will be hit first and most, increasingly suffering from droughts, water shortages and crop losses, settlements devastated by hurricanes or flooding or the spread of tropical diseases. More than a million species will become extinct as a result of global warming. Europe will also be hit. The 2003 heat wave or the Central European floods were a taste of what Europe will have to face. The European Environment Agency published an assessment on the impacts in Europe, available at http://reports.eea.eu.int/climate_report_2_2004/en

[4] "How the European Union responds to the global threat of climate change". An assessment by Friends of the Earth Europe; Brussels, May 2005; available at www.foeeurope.org/climate/download/EU2005CLIMATE.pdf (PDF)

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust