Carbon emissions dropped by 6.8% in 2013

Malta registered a drop in carbon emissions from energy use of 184,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, or 6.8% between 2012 and 2013, in the first full year of operation for the Delimara power station extension’s turbine running on heavy fuel oil.

Eurostat data estimated that in 2013 carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuel combustion decreased by 2.5% in the EU28, compared with the previous year, after a fall of 1.6% in 2012.

CO2 emissions are a major contributor to global warming and account for around 80% of all EU greenhouse gas emissions. In Malta, transport remains the greatest source of carbon emissions.

In 2013, the member states with the highest level of CO2 emissions in absolute terms was Germany (760 million tons), followed by the United Kingdom (455 mn tons), France (346 mn tons), Italy (342 mn tons), Poland (290 mn tons), Spain (224 mn tons) and the Netherlands (162 mn tons). These seven Member States accounted together for 77% of total EU28 CO2 emissions in 2013.

Eurostat estimates that from 2012 to 2013 CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion decreased in nearly all Member States, except Denmark (+6.8%), Estonia (+4.4%), Portugal (+3.6%), Germany (+2.0%), France (+0.6%) and Poland (+0.3%). The largest decreases were recorded in Cyprus (-14.7%), Romania (-14.6%), Spain (-12.6%), Slovenia (-12.0%), Bulgaria and Greece (both -10.2%).