The EU's Emissions Continued to Fall in 2018

According to the European Environment Agency, Europe's environmental watchdog, the EU's emissions continued to fall in 2018 - the last year that data is available for. Emissions declined by 2.1% compared to 2017 and 23% as opposed to 1990 - the year that is used as a baseline for emission cuts within the EU under UN climate treaties.

Declining coal use and higher demand for renewable energy are the main reasons for the emission fall. Carbon emissions from the transportation sector also flattened in 2018 after four years of rising pollution levels.

The fall in emissions is great news, but it is not enough to achieve the goal set up in the Paris Accord. To reach this aim, the EU's emissions have to decline by 7% each year. Greenpeace's EU spokesperson, Mark Breddy, has also claimed that the overall emission cuts within the EU need to be 65% by 2030. If it's not, the institution will fail to fulfill its obligations as described in the Paris Accord. This means that the EU must lower their emissions by almost twice as much as they've cut in the last 20 years, in half as much time.

After Brexit is completed in December, the EU will also lose the contribution of Great Britain to emission cuts. This will bring the total decline in emissions down to 20.7%.