EU gets renewed wakeup call on Kyoto targets
Rapidly increasing emissions from the transportation sector could stymie Europe's efforts to achieve targeted reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, a new report finds.
EU countries will have to step up their efforts if they are to meet commitments for cutting greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol, warns a report by the European Environment Agency (EEA). The agency projects that emissions will be only 0.6% below 1990 levels by 2010 with current policy actions. This is far below the 8% that the original 15 EU countries collectively agreed to reach by 2012.
The transport sector is the biggest culprit, EEA finds. Between 1990 and 2004, greenhouse gas emissions fell in most sectors, but those from transportation rose nearly 26% and are projected to increase to 35% above 1990 levels by 2010.
Only Sweden and the U.K. are on track to meet their targets, a progress report [96K PDF] by the European Commission shows. Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, on the other hand, project that they won’t be able to meet their targets, requiring the others to over-deliver on their reductions.
To just meet the overall 8% reduction target, EEA says, EU countries will need to fully implement their planned policies for an additional 4% cut. To achieve the rest, EEA suggests that the countries make use of the Kyoto Protocol’s flexible mechanisms, which allow developed countries to gain credits through carbon-cutting activities in other regions, to obtain another 2.6% reduction. Carbon sinks, such as planting forests to absorb CO2, could provide another 0.8% drop in emissions.
