European Energy Agency Report Released: Annual European Union Greenhouse Gas Inventory 1990-2011 and Inventory Report 2013

Recently, the European Environment Agency released a report titled, Annual European Union Greenhouse Gas Inventory 1990-2011 and Inventory Report 2013 . According to the executive summary for the 1159-page document the report discusses the following:

[t]he European Union (EU), as a party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), reports annually on greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories for the years 1990 to t-2 and within the area covered by its Member States (i.e. domestic emissions taking place within its territory).

The present inventory also constitutes the EU-15 submission under the Kyoto Protocol and covers information and data from Member States available until 15 May 2013. Under the Kyoto Protocol, the EU-15 took on a common commitment to reduce emissions by 8 % between 2008 and 2012 compared to emissions in the 'base year' The EU-27 does not have a common target under the Kyoto Protocol in the same way as the EU-15.
The legal basis for the compilation of the EU inventory is Decision No. 280/2004/EC concerning a mechanism for monitoring Community greenhouse gas emissions and for implementing the Kyoto Protocol.