In the first quarter of 2023, EU economy greenhouse gas emissions totalled 941 million tonnes of CO2-equivalents (CO2-eq), a 2.9% decrease compared with the same quarter of 2022 (969 million tonnes of CO2-eq). This decrease took place simultaneously with a 1.2% increase in the EU’s gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter of 2023, compared with the same quarter of 2022.
This information comes from data on quarterly estimates for greenhouse gas emissions by economic activity published by Eurostat today. Quarterly estimates of greenhouse gas emissions complement quarterly socio-economic data, such as GDP or employment.
This article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article on quarterly greenhouse gas emissions.
Source datasets: env_ac_aigg_q and namq_10_gdp
In the first quarter of 2023, the economic sectors responsible for most greenhouse gas emissions were ‘households’ (24%), ‘manufacturing’ (20%), ‘electricity, gas supply’ (19%), ‘agriculture’ (13%), followed by ‘transportation and storage’ (10%).
Data show that, compared with the first quarter of 2022, emissions decreased in 5 out of 9 economic sectors. The biggest decrease was registered in ‘electricity, gas supply’ (-12.3%). The main sector in which emissions increased was ‘transportation and storage’ (+7.2%).
Greenhouse gas emissions down in 21 EU countries
The largest reductions in greenhouse gases were registered in Bulgaria (-15.2%), Estonia (-14.7%) and Slovenia (-9.6%).
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%), Latvia (+7.5%), Slovakia (+1.9%), Denmark (+1.7%) Sweden (+1.6%) and Finland (0.3%), 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.
Source dataset: env_ac_aigg_q and namq_10_gdp
Source: Euro Stat
