Transport the big emitter as all other major sectors reduced greenhouse gases since 1990
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All major greenhouse gas emitting sectors have reduced in the past 30 years except for transport, an outlier which has significantly increased since 1990, with flying and driving the leading contributors.
That is according to figures from the European Commission’s data analysis service, Eurostat, which said that emissions from energy industries, manufacturing, homes and businesses, fuels, industrial processes, agriculture, and waste management have all fallen since 1990.
However, emissions from transport have grown by 7%.
The EU managed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1,546m tonnes of CO2-equivalents between 1990 and 2020, Eurostat said.
CO2 equivalent is the standard unit for measuring all greenhouse gases. They include carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and fluorinated gases, and are measured in a common unit for the purposes of simplicity and clarity.
The largest absolute decrease since 1990 is 657m tonnes in emissions from fuel combustion by energy industries — which mainly produce electricity, heat and derived fuels — followed by manufacturing industries and construction at 322m tonnes, and households, commerce, institutions and others at 215m tonnes, according to Eurostat.
Between 1990 and 2019, total greenhouse gas emissions increased by 33%, or 241m tonnes of CO2 equivalent. However in 2020, emissions from transport dropped by more than 200m tonnes due to Covid-19.
While road transport is the largest contributor with close to three quarters of the transport-related emissions, international aviation has seen the largest growth over the years, more than doubling its emissions, Eurostat said.
Aviation was left out of the so-called carbon budgets assigned to each sector to reduce Ireland’s emissions by 2030, much to the chagrin of environmentalists.
Environment and Transport Minister Eamon Ryan recently told the Irish Examiner that aviation was left out of the budgets because flying is an international issue.
This week, flights took off from Dublin Airport’s new €320m runway, putting in context the conundrum that Ireland faces in how to deal with aviation’s emissions in upcoming years.
The European Commission has said that direct emissions from aviation accounted for 3.8% of total CO2 in the EU, using 2017 figures.
The aviation sector creates 13.9% of the emissions from transport, making it the second biggest sector after road travel.
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