EU off-track from Kyoto targets, says EEA[fr][de] 

EU-15 countries will need to step up their efforts if they are to meet their overall target to reduce emissions of global-warming gases and meet their Kyoto commitment, the EEA warned on 27 October.

According to a new report by the Copenhagen agency, 'Greenhouse-gas emission trends and projections in Europe 2006' , existing policies will have slashed greenhouse-gas emissions in the EU-15 by only 0.6% in 2010 - a far cry from the 8% it committed to achieve by 2012.

Looking at national commitments, - the individual share of the overall burden that EU countries have distributed among themselves, only Sweden and the UK are on track to deliver, the EEA said.

If full use is made of additional measures such as Kyoto 'flexible' mechanisms and reforestation, three countries are expected to meet their target (France, Germany, Greece) and three others could even exceed them (Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands).

Additional efforts that the EEA says need to be made in order to meet the overall 8% reduction target include:

• Planned policies which have not yet been implemented (additional 4% cut);
• the projected use of 'flexible' mechanisms under the Kyoto (additional 2.6 %  cut), and ;
• the use of carbon sinks such as planting forests to absorb CO2 (additional 0.8% cut)

"Only by implementing all existing and planned domestic policy measures and using Kyoto mechanisms and carbon sinks, can emissions be brought down to 8.0 %," the EEA said.

Earlier this week, Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said that CO2 emission plans he received from 17 EU countries showed that they were preparing to release some 15% more greenhouse gases in 2008-2012 than they did in 2005-2007. The attempts are expected to prompt a rejection of several National Allocation Plans by the Commission in late November in an effort to keep the EU in line with its Kyoto commitment (EurActiv 25/10/06).