EU meets Kyoto targets under first commitment period (2008-2012)

The European Union and its Member States have met their greenhouse gas emissions reduction commitments under the Kyoto Protocol's first commitment period (2008-2012).

18 November 2015 marked the last day to comply with greenhouse gas emissions reduction commitments. This means that Member States had to match their recorded tonnes of emissions with a corresponding amount of emission units.

For the whole period, the EU's total emissions, without Cyprus and Malta which have no targets, were 23.5 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent. This is equivalent to a reduction of around 19% below the base year in the commitment period 2008-2012.

All Member States committed to a reduction of 8% during this period, either jointly under the EU-15 “burden-sharing” or individually, except Croatia that committed to a reduction of 5% and Hungary and Poland to a reduction of 6%.

Read more:

• Kyoto 1st commitment period