In 2018, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from energy use in the European Union (EU) decreased compared with 2017. The statistical office of the EU, Eurostat estimates that in 2018 CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion significantly decreased by 2.5 percent in the EU, compared with the previous year.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are a major contributor to global warming and account for around 80 percent of all EU greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. They are influenced by factors such as climate conditions, economic growth, size of the population, transport and industrial activities.
According to early Eurostat estimates, CO2 emissions fell in 2018 in a majority of EU Member States, with the highest decrease being recorded in Portugal (-9.0%), followed by Bulgaria (-8.1%), Ireland (-6.8%), Germany (-5.4%), the Netherlands (-4.6%) and Croatia (-4.3%).
However, increases were registered in eight Member States: Latvia (+8.5%), ahead of Malta (+6.7%), Estonia (+4.5%), Luxembourg (+3.7%), Poland (+3.5%), Slovakia (+2.4%), Finland (+1.9%) and Lithuania (+0.6%).
Eurostat points out that imports and exports of energy products have an impact on CO2 emissions in the country where fossil fuels are burned: for example if coal is imported this leads to an increase in emissions, while if electricity is imported, it has no direct effect on emissions in the importing country, as these would be reported in the exporting country where it is produced.
Early estimates of CO2 emissions from energy use are computed by Eurostat based on monthly energy statistics and using a harmonised methodology. These data may slightly differ from those published nationally. Data on CO2 emissions from energy use presented do not include CO2 emissions resulting from the combustion of non-renewable waste.