EU’s energy sector leads the way in cuts to greenhouse gas emissions in 2023

Press releasePublished 16 Apr 2025\n\nThe European Union’s energy sector led the way in reducing domestic EU net greenhouse gas emissions by 9% in 2023 compared to the year before according to the latest official EU data submitted by the European Environment Agency (EEA) to the United Nations. The drop represents the largest relative reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the EU since 1990 and further solidifies the EU’s progress to reduce its share of global emissions.\n\nThe official data submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) means that the total net greenhouse gas reduction (including LULUCF and excluding international aviation and maritime transport) between 1990 and 2023 in the EU reached -37%, or a decrease of 1,728 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (Mt CO2e).\n\nThe figures also confirm yet again that there has been a progressive decoupling between gross domestic product (GDP) and emissions, with GDP increasing by 70% and greenhouse gas emissions falling by 37% between 1990 and 2023 to the current level of 2,908 Mt CO2e.\n\n\n\nThe bulk of reductions occurred in the energy sector, in a context of lower total energy consumption in the EU in 2023. For the power sector alone, emissions decreased by 22% — the largest decrease in the EU of the past 33 years of inventory data since 1990. This was due to both a strong reduction in the consumption of coal and natural gas for electricity and heat generation as well as a...