European Commission officials said that except for 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic and the isolation measures led to a 9.8% cut, the 2023 greenhouse gas emission reduction was the most significant in the last decades. This achievement didn't result in an economic decline, as the overall GDP of the region saw a very modest growth of 0.5%.

Looking at the bigger picture, compared to the GHG levels and economic situation of the year 1990, 2023 saw a 37% cut in the region's carbon footprint, while the GDP rose by 68%. EU officials say that among the most notable measures that led to this achievement is the switch from fossil power to renewable sources in 2023 compared to 2022. Renewable energy sources became the primary energy production mechanism in the EU last year, accounting for almost 45% of the produced electricity. At the same time, fossil-generated electricity dropped by 20% last year compared to 2022.

"Overall, provisional data from 2023 shows that the EU's GHG net emissions are currently in line with the hypothetical linear reduction path to the EU's 2030 target of reducing GHG emissions by at least 55% compared with 1990 levels", say EU representatives in the Commission’s 2024 Climate Action Progress Report.

The report can be accessed entirely here.

Going forward, legislators suggest that, in order to achieve the 2030 target, the region will need to remove the equivalent of 134 megatons of emissions from the atmosphere every year and afterwards, we need to maintain a similar pace to achieve the 2050 objective of net-zero.

Regarding the different sectors in the EU, the authors of the report found that the power and industrial sectors achieved a 16.5% reduction in GHG emissions, while the building sector, a 5.5% cut. At the same time, overall transport emissions were less than 1% lower in 2023 compared to 2022, but aviation emissions rose by 9.5%.