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Historical and projected GHG emissions reported by the EU Member States and quality checked by the EEA. Values expressed in MtCO₂e. For historic years, disaggregation to 4 subcategories is available. There are two scenarios of projected emissions: WEM, with existing measures scenario and WAM, with additional measures scenario.
This figure shows the EU-27 Effort Sharing emissions as well as the Member States' projections covering emissions under the Effort Sharing Regulation ('with existing measures' (WEM) and 'with additional measures' (WAM) scenarios).
The EU has not succeeded in meeting its target to reduce, by 2020, the greenhouse gas emission intensity of fuels sold for road transport to 6% below 2010 levels. Between 2010 and 2020, the emission intensity decreased by 5.5%, mostly due to the increased use of biofuels. Eleven countries have succeeded in decreasing their emission intensities by more than 6%. If Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC) effects of biofuel production are considered, the emission intensity of fuels sold in the EU decreased slightly between 2019 and 2020.
In 2020, eleven countries succeeded in decreasing their emission intensities by more than 6%, with Sweden and Finland achieving the highest reductions (19.1% and 7.2% respectively).
This figure shows the EU-27 greenhouse gas emission targets, historical and future emission trends of emissions covered by the Effort Sharing legislation, the EU Emission Trading System (ETS) and the Land Use, Land Use Change, and Forestry sector (LULUCF).
This figure shows the progress of EU countries towards their Effort Sharing targets.
The Effort Sharing Decision (ESD) No 406/2009/EC establishes annual greenhouse gas emission targets for Member States for the period 2013–2020. These targets concern emissions from most sectors not included in the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), such as transport, buildings, agriculture and waste. Emissions from land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) and international shipping are not included. Every year, the EEA coordinates the ESD review of Member States’ greenhouse gas inventories, so that the European Commission can determine compliance with the annual ESD targets on the basis of accurate, reliable and verified emission data. Review reports and final ESD emissions are published by the European Commission. ESD emissions for the period 2005–2012 and for the latest year ("Y-1") are estimated by EEA on the basis of national GHG inventory data and ETS emissions.
The Governance of the Energy Union and Climate Action ((EU) 2018/1999) requires Member States to report national projections of anthropogenic GHG emissions. Every two years, each EU Member State shall report GHG projections in a ‘with existing measures’ scenario for the years 2020, 2025, 2030, 2035 and 2040, by gas (or group of gases) and by sector. National projections shall take into consideration any policies and measures adopted at Union level. The reported data are quality checked by the EEA and its European Topic Centre for Climate Change Mitigation and Energy (ETC/CME).
The figure shows the level of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the agriculture sector. The GHG emission trend consists of historical emissions (1990-2020) and projected emissions (2021-2040).
Data about the EU emission trading system (ETS). The EU ETS data viewer provides aggregated data on emissions and allowances, by country, sector and year. The data mainly comes from the EU Transaction Log (EUTL). Additional information on auctioning and scope corrections is included.
Greenhouse gas emissions from the agriculture sector are covered by national annual emission targets. Between 2005 and 2019, the EU’s agriculture emissions remained stable. Current national projections only foresee a modest decline of 2% by 2030, compared with 2005 levels, and a 5% reduction with the implementation of currently planned measures. This projected progress remains largely insufficient and highlights the need for further action if Member States are to reach their binding annual targets and the EU its climate neutrality goal by 2050.
In 2019, the EU was not on track to meet its target to reduce the greenhouse gas emission intensity of fuels sold for road transport to 6% below 2010 levels by 2020. Between 2010 and 2019, emission intensity decreased by 4.3%, mostly due to the increased use of biofuels. Finland and Sweden are the only Member States whose emission intensities decreased by more than 6%, with the Netherlands reporting a 5.8% reduction in 2019. If the indirect land use change (ILUC) effects of biofuel production are considered, the emission intensity of fuels sold in the EU also decreased between 2018 and 2019, due to the limited substitution of oil crops as feedstocks by sugars.
Greenhouse gas emissions in the EU decreased by 31% between 1990 and 2020 — exceeding the EU’s 2020 target by 11 percentage points. This overshoot was propelled by steep emission cuts in 2019 and 2020. While the cut in 2019 was strongly driven by fossil fuel price effects and policy measures, the decline in 2020 was additionally related to the Covid-19 pandemic. EU greenhouse gas emissions are expected to further decline until 2030. Member States have not yet realigned their ambitions to the new net 55% reduction target for 2030, and the further implementation of impactful policies and measures will be important to bring the new 2030 target within reach.
EU greenhouse gas emissions covered by national reduction targets decreased by 15% between 2005 and 2020, which is significantly more than the 10% reduction foreseen in the Effort Sharing Decision (ESD). These reductions were largely driven by improvements in energy efficiency and the switch to less carbon intensive fuels, including renewable energy. Preliminary emissions data for 2020 show that 21 EU Member States are expected to be below their national emission targets for that year. Six Member States are expected to have emissions above their 2020 target levels, despite the effects of the measures to address the pandemic.
The greenhouse gas emission intensity of power generation in the EU has been continuously decreasing over the last three decades: generating 1 kilowatt hour in 2020 emitted, on average, half as much CO 2 as in 1990. Policies have been playing an important role in driving this shift towards less carbon-intensive energy sources, in particular those addressing climate change, renewable energy supply and efficient energy use, and industrial emissions. The Covid-19 pandemic hardly affected electricity use in 2020, but the continued growth of renewable electricity caused a further drop in the greenhouse gas emission intensity of electricity generation.
This figure shows the greenhouse gas emission targets, trends as well as the EU Member States (EU-28 and after 2019 EU-27) MMR projections.
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/find/global or scan the QR code.
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