The EU’s statistical agency Eurostat announced Thursday (4 May) that CO2 emissions resulting from the EU’s energy use have “slightly decreased” in 2016, compared to the year before. But Eurostat’s press release did not mention that the small decrease has not made up for the small increase in CO2 emissions the year before, and that more CO2 was emitted in 2016 than in 2014.
source: Eurostat
Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions account for around 80 percent of all of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to potentially disastrous climate change.
In 2016, carbon emissions dropped by 0.4 percent compared to 2015, Eurostat said in a press release.
But in 2015, CO2 emissions had increased by 0.7 percent compared to 2014.
In other words, last year’s CO2 emissions increased by 0.29 percent compared to 2014, which means that for the second consecutive year the EU’s carbon emissions are higher than in 2014, albeit very slightly.
The flatlining contrasts with figures from 2014, when emissions dropped by 5 percent compared to the year before. In the two years before, the year-on-year decrease had also been at least 2 percent.