Carbon dioxide emissions in the European Union reached a 30-year low this November - upending forecasts that a surge in fossil fuel imports would do the opposite, a new report reveals.
The EU’s ongoing energy crisis, driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, generated concern that a subsequent scramble for fossil fuels would cause an increase in the bloc’s emissions, according to the report released by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
Yet power sector emissions and coal use plunged in November for the third month in a row, the Helsinki-based organization determined.
The report, which relied on near real-time tracking of carbon emissions within the EU, attributed these surprising developments to a “misunderstanding” about resource acquisition and actual consumption.
The bloc's dramatic reductions in fossil fuel use in both industry and buildings, according to the report, was caused by the impact of high prices on demand, combined with increases in wind and solar power production.
In the electricity sector, both coal and gas-fired power fell year-over-year in November, the report found. The fall in gas-fired generation was about four times as large as the drop in coal-fired production.
Both solar and wind output achieved new records in November, according to the report.