Official: EU climate policy is working

The EU remains on track to exceed the international carbon emissions targets imposed through the Kyoto Protocol, despite a 2.4 per cent in emissions last year driven by the bloc's gradual economic recovery.

According to figures released today as part of the European Commission's annual report on its progress to meeting its Kyoto targets, EU greenhouse gas emissions for 2010 were 15.5 per cent below 1990 levels despite economic growth of 41 per cent over the same period.

Significantly, emissions across the EU fell for six consecutive years through to and including 2009, even when the bloc was enjoying economic growth.

EU climate change commissioner Connie Hedegaard hailed the report as evidence the EU has successfully decoupled emissions from economic growth through the wider use of low carbon technologies.

"The EU continued decoupling emissions from GDP during the recession," she said in a statement. "Between 2008 and 2009, emissions fell by 7.1 per cent in the EU-27, much more than the around four per cent contraction in GDP."

However, she added that the estimated 2.4 per cent increase in emissions last year "shows that we need to continue the decoupling process".

"Pursuing our efforts to make Europe a low-carbon society is the way forward," she said. "It will stimulate technological innovation, spur economic growth and create jobs while further reducing emissions so that we meet our 2020 climate and energy targets and long term goals."

The report from the European Environment Agency (EEA) also confirms the EU-15 countries that face a legally binding requirement to cut emissions by eight per cent against 1990 levels by 2012 under the Kyoto Protocol are on track to meet the target and are "most likely to overachieve it".

Last year the EU-15's emissions were 10.7 per cent below 1990 levels, meaning the group should comfortably exceed the eight per cent target.

However, the EEA noted that Austria, Italy and Luxembourg were still lagging behind their Kyoto Protocol targets at the end of 2010.

The agency also confirmed that the EU was on track to meet its stated goal of cutting emissions by 20 per cent against 1990 levels by 2020, assuming it continues to pursue planned climate change policies.

Professor Jacqueline McGlade, EEA Executive Director, said that the report demonstrated that the bloc's low carbon policies were having the desired result.

"Many different policies have played an active role in bringing down greenhouse gas emissions", she said in a statement. "Alongside renewable energy or energy efficiency, efforts to reduce water pollution from agriculture also led to emission reductions. This experience shows we can reduce emissions further if we consider the climate impacts of various policies more systematically."

The 15.5 per cent cuts in emissions against 1990 levels will further fuel calls from a number of countries, including the UK, Germany and France, for the EU to increase its emissions reduction target for 2020 from 20 to 30 per cent.

Supporters of a more ambitious target have argued that the impact of the recession on emissions means that the EU will now easily meet the 20 per cent goal and can now deliver cuts of 30 per cent with a negligible impact on the economy.

They also argue that endorsing a more ambitious target will stimulate further investment in clean technologies and could help end the deadlock at the long-running international talks on the future of the Kyoto Protocol.

However, eastern and southern European countries have expressed opposition to changing the 20 per cent target, warning that a more demanding goal could force carbon intensive industries to lead the bloc.

The European Commission is now attempting to broker a compromise between the two groups with some officials suggesting that a target of cutting emissions 25 per cent by 2020 should be adopted.