Brussels – Greenhouse gas emissions from the European Union economy increased in the third quarter of 2025: according to estimates released by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Union, between July and September last year, 828 million tons of CO₂ equivalent were produced, 1.1 per cent more than in the previous quarter, when they amounted to 819 million. During the same period, the EU’s GDP also rose by 0.4 per cent compared to the second quarter. On an annual basis, the picture appears more stable: compared to the third quarter of 2024, emissions remained unchanged, while GDP grew by 1.6 percentage points.
A carbon dioxide equivalent or CO₂ equivalent (abbreviated as CO₂-eq) is a unit of measurement used to compare the emissions of various greenhouse gases based on their global warming potential (GWP), converting the quantities of other gases into the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide with the same global warming potential. The data show that in the third quarter of last year, the sectors with the largest increases in greenhouse gas emissions were households (+3.6 per cent) and manufacturing (+1.4 per cent). The electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply sector bucked the trend, being the only sector to decline (-0.8 per cent).
Looking at individual countries, in the third quarter of 2025, compared to the previous quarter, emissions increased in 17 Member States and decreased in ten. The most significant decreases were in Estonia (-17.4 per cent), Slovenia (-5.7 per cent), and Cyprus (-5.2 per cent). Conversely, Italy ranks third in terms of the increase in greenhouse gas emissions, at around +2.9 percentage points, with GDP growth of 0.1 per cent. Ahead of Italy were Ireland (+3.2 per cent and +0.2 per cent of GDP) and the Netherlands (+3 per cent emissions and +0.6 per cent GDP). Among the ten countries that have cut emissions, only Lithuania has also seen a decline in GDP. In the other nine—Bulgaria, Estonia, Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, and Slovenia—emissions have fallen while GDP has grown or remained stable.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
