Bulgaria had largest reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in EU in Q1 2023 – Eurostat

The largest reductions on an annual basis in greenhouse gases in the European Union in the first quarter of 2023 were registered in Bulgaria (-15.2 per cent), Estonia (-14.7 per cent) and Slovenia (-9.6 per cent), EU statistics agency Eurostat said on August 16.

In the first quarter of 2023, EU economy greenhouse gas emissions totalled 941 million tonnes of CO2-equivalents (CO2-eq), a 2.9 per cent decrease compared with the same quarter of 2022 (969 million tonnes of CO2-eq).

This decrease took place simultaneously with a 1.2 per cent increase in the EU’s gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter of 2023, compared with the same quarter of 2022.

Emissions in the first quarter of 2023 decreased in almost all EU countries when compared with the first quarter of 2022, except for Ireland (+9.1 per cent), Latvia (+7.5 per cent), Slovakia (+1.9 per cent), Denmark (+1.7 per cent) Sweden (+1.6 per cent) and Finland (0.3 per cent), where they increased. This group of EU members also saw their GDP increase.

Of the 21 EU countries that decreased their emissions, only 6 also decreased their GDP (Czechia, Estonia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, and Poland), meaning 15 EU countries (Portugal, Croatia, Belgium, Malta, France, Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Romania, Italy, Cyprus, Greece, Slovenia and Bulgaria) managed to decrease emissions while growing their GDP, Eurostat said.

(Photo: Hans Thoursie/freeimages.com)