Greenhouse gas emissions in the EU are currently lower than they were in the ten years before the pandemic. Compared to the second quarter of 2020, however, there has been an increase that is attributed to the economic upturn.
After the collapse of greenhouse gas emissions during the corona pandemic, the EU still emits less climate-damaging carbon dioxide than before the outbreak of the virus. This emerges from new data that the statistics agency Eurostat published on Monday. According to this, around 867 million tonnes of CO₂ and other greenhouse gases were emitted in the EU in the second quarter of 2021 – in the ten years before the pandemic, a quarterly value was never smaller.
Nevertheless, it is an increase of 18 percent compared to the second quarter of 2020. The increase is due to the economic upturn, wrote Eurostat. Between April and June 2020, emissions reached a low of around 735 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, as the economy was shut down during the corona pandemic.
According to the Eurostat communication, it is the first time that the agency publishes quarterly data on greenhouse gas emissions and breaks them down by sector. Industry and construction were responsible for the most emissions – 34 percent in the second quarter of this year – followed by electricity (19 percent), agriculture (14 percent), transportation (8 percent) and other services (8 percent) . Households were responsible for around 18 percent of emissions from heating and transport.
Eurostat intends to publish such data every quarter in the future in order to be able to better monitor progress in the fight against climate change.
(WHAT)