New data published last week by Eurostat revealed that greenhouse gas emissions totaled 941 million tonnes of CO2 in the first quarter of 2023. Compared to the same period last year, emissions decreased by 2,9%. The decline is even more notable considering that, in the same time interval, the EU’s economy increased by 1,2%.

The majority of EU countries reported declines in emissions except for Ireland, Latvia, Slovakia, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. The largest drops were observed in Bulgaria (-15.2%), Estonia (-14.7%), and Slovenia (-9.6%).

Quarterly data show that emissions fell in Romania by 4,7% in the first quarter compared to the same period in 2022. Our country managed to decrease its emissions while the GDP increased by 2,4%.

In fact, emissions in the EU are on a steady decline. A previous report published in May by Eurostat also revealed that emissions in the fourth quarter of 2022 dropped by 4% compared with the same quarter of 2021.

Data published last week showed that emissions in the EU decline in 5 out of 9 sectors. The most significant decrease was recorded in the electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply (-12,3%) while emissions increased the most in the transportation and storage sector (+7,2%).