European Union making deeper emission cuts than promised

The European Union is ahead of schedule in its promise to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2012. The Commission's annual report shows that the 25 member states with reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol will meet their commitments. "The European Union not only signed the Kyoto Protocol, we not only pledged under Kyoto. The facts show that the world can count on the European Union; what we pledge we also deliver. In this case we are actually heading to overachieving", said Commissioner Hedegaard.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, the 15 EU Member States at the time the Protocol was agreed committed to reduce their collective greenhouse gas emissions in the period 2008-2012 by an average of 8% below levels in a chosen base year (1990 in most cases). This collective commitment has been translated into differentiated national emission targets for each EU-15 Member State which are binding under EU law.

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• IP/10/1315: Climate change: European Union making deeper emission cuts than promised