🏭 The EU's carbon dioxide emissions are decreasing

EU countries' carbon dioxide emissions fell by five percent in the last three months compared to the same period last year, according to a report from the charitable foundation Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (Crea).

The biggest reason for the reduction in emissions is that increased energy prices caused companies and households to reduce their electricity consumption, which in turn reduced emissions.

Another reason was that electricity production from renewable sources increased during the period and that trend continues. In 2022, Crea expects that solar power alone will be expanded by 40 GW within the EU.

This reduction represents something of a trend break in post-pandemic development. In the 16 months before, carbon dioxide emissions increased within the EU. So in that sense, the current energy crisis has been beneficial in that all countries have looked at their possibilities to reduce electricity consumption, and above all from fossil sources.

The decline also appears to be accelerating. The biggest decrease during these three months came in the last month, October. Then emissions dropped by eight percent. Cera also points out that the transition to electric vehicles is now fast and will contribute to reduced emissions. In the second quarter of 2022, electric car sales increased by 16 percent in Europe compared to the same period in 2021.

Here is the entire study