European Union

Key Statistics

Cumulative CO2 Emissions from Energy (1990-2005)

Global Rank

2nd
Per Capita Global Rank

29th
Percent Global total

17.44%
Tons Per Person
132.3T

Kyoto Goals and Status

Kyoto Target, Compared to 1990

-8%
Emissions Change (1990-2007)

-9.3%/4.3%

Key Negotiators

Map

Copenhagen Positions

Long Term Temperature Goal

2 Degrees Celsius
2020 Target

-30% by 2020
2050 Target

80-95%, consistant with 2°C objective, 50% global reduction
Annex I 2020 Target

-30%

Historical and Projected Data

1990 2007 2020 2030
Polluter Rank–Per Capita (Annual)1 34th 39th*
Polluter Rank–Gross (Annual)2 2nd 3rd*
Total Annual GHG Emissions (CO2e, millions)3 17.95% 13.37%*
Tons of CO2 Per Person (Annual)4 11.4T 10.3T
Percent of World Population5 8.96% 7.5% 6.76% 6.29%
Population (thousands) and Rank6 473,298/3rd 491,023/3rd 513,837/3rd 519,942/3rd
C02 Emissions from Energy Use (CO2e, millions) 4,277Mt7 3,999Mt8 3,949Mt9 3,755Mt10
C02 Emissions from Land Use Change & Forestry (CO2e, millions) -334Mt11 -407Mt12
Responsibility and Capacity Index13 (Percent of Global) 22.8% 19.6%
G-20 Low Carbon Competitive Index14 (Rank/Index) N/A

* 2005 Data

  1. Climate Analysis Indicators Tool (CAIT) Version 6.0. (Washington, DC: World Resources Institute, 2009), C02 emissions, excluding emissions from Land use Change & Forestry. ↩
  2. Ibid ↩
  3. Annual European Community greenhouse gas inventory 1990–2007 and inventory report 2009. Submission to the UNFCCC (May 2009), page 9, excluding emissions from Land Use and Forestry. 5,564.0Mt 5045.1Mt Percent of Global Emissions[6. CAIT ↩
  4. Ibid ↩
  5. Eurostat, “Population and Social Conditions”(pdf) ↩
  6. U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base (IDB) ↩
  7. Annual European Community Greenhouse Gas Inventory ↩
  8. Ibid ↩
  9. CAIT, Greenhouse Gas Emission Projections, using IEA, World Energy Outlook 2008 data set. ↩
  10. Ibid ↩
  11. Annual European Community Greenhouse Gas Inventory ↩
  12. Ibid ↩
  13. The Greenhouse Development Rights Framework, The Right to Development in A Climate Constrained World (pdf), p.6, September 2008. ↩
  14. G20 Low Carbon Competitiveness Report. (pdf) ↩

International Climate Policy

The European Union has played a critical role in the development of the international climate policy framework to date, and in particular the Kyoto Protocol. While support for a binding international climate regime have waxed and waned in several key developed countries with the change in governments, the EU as a whole has been steadily moving Kyoto implementation plan forward.

In negotiating the Kyoto Protocol, the EU pushed for the ability to meet emission reduction commitments jointly with other countries. 1 Under this approach, known as the “EU Bubble”, each country within the EU as well as the EU itself made a commitment under the Kyoto Protocol to reduce emissions.  The EU is allowed to distribute responsibility for meeting the target internally within the EU, which it does through “effort sharing” agreements, ranging from -28% to +27%.  This arrangement results in some members taking on significant reduction targets, and others having growth targets, but the end result designed for the EU as a whole to meet its reduction commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.

It should be noted that while the expansion of the EU from 15 to 27 members since the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol has changed the makeup of the EU’s emissions profile, it has not changed the common target of the EU-15 established through the EU bubble. Recently added member states retained those targets that agreed to in the Kyoto negotiations, and are not part of a common EU commitment in the 2008-12 period.  The EU-15 countries who formed the original EU bubble have reduced their emissions -4.3% below 1990 levels through 2007, and with the addition of new members, the EU27 countries are collectively 9.3% below 1990 levels. 2

For the second phase of reduction targets set to be adopted in Copenhagen, the EU has adopted a unilateral EU wide target of -20% below 1990 levels by 2020, to be shared jointly across Member States, and pledged to increase its reduction commitment to -30% if “comparable” efforts were undertaken among other developed countries, particularly by the United States. 3

Current EU Council Presidency:  Sweden

First Half 2010: Spain
Second Half 2010: Belgium

  1. Kyoto Protocol to UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Article 4. ↩
  2. Annual European Community greenhouse gas inventory 1990–2007 and inventory report 2009. ↩
  3. European Council Decision, March 9th, 2007, paragraph 31. http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/93135.pdf ↩

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