The European Environment Agency (EEA) released a report on Wednesday titled Annual European Community greenhouse gas inventory 1990-2002 and inventory report 2004 which contains some interesting data on GHG emissions in Europe. The EEA provided an overview of its findings in its press release announcing the report:

“The fall in 2002 took total EU15 emissions to 2.9% below their level in the base year used for calculations – 1990 in most cases. This represents an improvement on 2001, when emissions were only 2.1% lower than in the base year. But it still leaves the EU with a long way to go to meet its commitment, under the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, to bring emissions in the period 2008-2012 to 8% below their base year level. Assuming the 8% reduction between the base year and 2008-2012 were to follow a linear path, emissions should have fallen 4.8% by 2002. On this basis, only four countries are on track to comply with the national targets that all pre-2004 member states have accepted under an agreement to ensure that the EU as a whole fulfils its Kyoto commitment. The four are France, Germany, Sweden and the UK (see annex for details). On the same basis, the other 11 pre-2004 member states are heading towards overshooting their emission targets, some by a substantial margin. This is the case particularly for Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Austria, Italy, Denmark and Greece. Spain faces a greater challenge to meet its target than any other member state. Its emissions in 2002 were 39.4% above their base year level – well over double the 15% increase it is allowed between the base year and 2008-2012 under the EU agreement.”

If you’d like to do some comparing, here are the U.S. estimates, and the U.S. Energy Information Agency press release is here.

It is data like this that led me earlier this year to write:

“Much has been made about the apparent differences between the United States and Europe on the issue of climate change. A close look reveals that from a practical standpoint these differences, while real and significant, may be more symbolic than substantive… The point here is not simply that Europe is struggling to meet its Kyoto commitments or that the United States is a profligate emitter of greenhouse gases, but that under the current approach to climate policy the stated intentions of policy makers and the general populace do not appear to make a large difference in policy outcomes with respect to in actual greenhouse gas emissions. In short, with very few exceptions industrialized countries that have signed on to Kyoto have seen their emissions increase and so too have countries that have turned down Kyoto.”

Reference: Pielke, Jr., R.A., 2004: L’Apocalisse Prossima Ventura (Italian Version). Darwin, May, 52-59. (Also available in English.)