Data released by the Eurostat showed that the European Union (EU) is close to its 2020 target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent compared to 1990.
Greenhouse gas emissions at EU level were 17.9 percent below 1990 levels and the EU is now confident of achieving its Europe 2020 target.
As to the member states, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Poland and Spain are the biggest green house gas emitters.
While the Baltic EU Member States and Romania become the largest reductions in greenhouse gas emissions over the past 25 years.
According to the Eurostat, twenty Member States have already reached their Europe 2020 targets on energy consumption, while only four out of the 28 EU Member States have reached their Europe 2020 goal on renewables.
Eurostat is a Directorate-General of the European Commission located in Luxembourg. Its main responsibilities are to provide statistical information to the institutions of the European Union (EU).
The Eurostat said date showed that while primary consumption of energy stood in 2013 at its early 1990s level, renewables have increased their share in final energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions decreased over the same time period.
Energy, transport and increased human intervention in the environment have proven to be major contributors to climate change over the last few decades.
Transport is responsible for around a quarter of EU greenhouse gas emissions making it the second biggest greenhouse gas emitting sector after energy. Road transport alone contributes about one-fifth of the EU’s total emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas.
While emissions from other sectors are generally falling, those from transport have continued to increase until 2008 when transport emissions started to decrease on the back of oil prices, increased efficiency of passenger cars and slower growth in mobility.
Greenhouse gas emissions in Europe have plunged to the lowest level ever recorded after the EU’s member states reported an estimated 23% drop in emissions between 1990 and 2014.
The bloc has now overshot its target for 2020 of cutting emissions by one-fifth – at the same time that its economy grew by 46%.