European Union greenhouse gas emissions fall as clean energy gains ground

The European Commission published a progress report on climate action and a carbon market report showing that greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union fell by 1.6 percent in 2025 compared to 2024.

These findings indicate that the union successfully decoupled economic growth from carbon output, as the economy grew by 74 percent since 1990 while emissions dropped by 39 percent during the same period.

The commission noted that emissions under the EU-ETS, a carbon trading system, decreased by about 2 percent in 2025. The commission also reported that carbon market revenues reached 43.2 billion EUR in 2025, an 11 percent increase from the previous year. The commission distributed 23.9 billion EUR of these funds directly to member states to finance decarbonization measures for industry and households. However, some sectors face challenges.

Emissions in areas covered by the Effort Sharing Regulation, such as transport and agriculture, remained largely stable. The commission identified nine member states. Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Lithuania, Malta, and Sweden, as making insufficient progress toward 2030 goals. The commission will ask these countries to submit corrective action plans to accelerate investment and emission reductions. The commission also highlighted growth in clean technologies.

Battery-electric car registrations reached 1.9 million in 2025, while wind and solar energy capacity reached 611 GW, representing about 49 percent of total electricity generation. Despite these gains, the commission warned that the land sector still faces a gap of 40 to 55 million tons of CO2 equivalent to meet 2030 targets.