EU greenhouse gas emissions drop 5% in the second quarter
EU greenhouse gas emissions drop 5% in the second quarter
Greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union fell by more than 5% in the second quarter of 2023, with the biggest decline recorded in electricity and gas supply, statistics agency Eurostat said on Wednesday.
In order to be emission neutral by 2050 we'd need 10-15% annual emission reductions. So we are only off by factor 2-3!
It'd be great to be off by a factor -4
I love how we are going for factor 5
No thanks to Sweden. One of the parties in the ruling far-right coalition doesn't think that Sweden should try to fight climate change, and they're purposely increasing Sweden's GHG emissions and blaming the EU.
It's always the same with these right-wing fuckers all over the globe - strong resistance to renewable energy and EV adoption, etc is - in my opinion - part of the very fabric of both the extremist right-wing AFD as well as of the centrist right-wing CDU in Germany as well...
...Not to mention the liberal-conservative FDP, which didn't do shit but play opposition within government (current coalition in Germany: Social democrats, Green Party + FDP) for the last two years...
What exactly do your extremists currently do / propose legislation wise with regard to Sweden's GHG emissions?
The main issue from the right-wing in Sweden has been the racist and anti-humanrights rhetoric. The policies so far haven't been too extreme, luckily, aside from some disastrous spending cuts.
The biggest climate policy impact has been a populustic slashing of petrol taxes, and removing biofuel mandates. Reducing petrol prices by 10% at the cost of completely missing our climate goals.
The Swedish right has also been blocking wind turbine construction permits which has been pretty terrible.
It is basicly everybody who bought a lot of Russian fossil fuels and has to be insane prices to replace them or go to some green technologies. So the ones who did a lot are basicly the eastern members, like Poland and countries like Germany and Italy.
However Sweden already has pretty low emissions. Seems to me the big issue is cleaning up transport to use less oil. The good part is the EU ban on fossil fuel cars has gone throu.
Right, Sweden has a lot of hydro and nuclear electricity, so we're doing fine for emissions when it comes to electricity. Unfortunately, the right has been doing everything they can to increase transportation emissions. Canceling rail projects, slashing fuel taxes, and removing biofuel mandates. Very populistic, car-focused parties.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The EU's emissions between April to June amounted to 821 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents, down 5.3% from a year earlier, while the bloc's economy remained almost stable, registering a year-on-year variation of 0.05% in the period.
Electricity and gas supply, the sector whose emissions fell the most (-22%), contributed 15.5% to the total figure, while agriculture accounted for 14.3% and transportation and storage for 12.8%.
To reach its carbon neutrality objective, the bloc earlier this year increased its goal of renewable energy share to 42.5% by 2030 from a previous target of 32%.
Manufacturing was the main contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the second quarter, accounting for 23.5% of the total, followed by households with 17.9%.
The largest reductions in greenhouse gases, responsible for warming the planet, were registered in Bulgaria (-23.7%), Estonia (-23.1%) and the Netherlands (-10.3%), Eurostat said.
Of the 21 EU members that decreased their year-on-year emissions in the second quarter, ten countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Greece, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain) managed to do so while growing their GDP, Eurostat added.
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