New data from Eurostat has revealed that seasonally adjusted greenhouse gas emissions linked to the EU economy rose by 0.9% in the fourth quarter of 2025, compared to the previous quarter.
Emissions for the quarter stood at 839 million tonnes of CO2-eq for the period, compared to 832 million tonnes of CO2-eq in the third quarter, the data showed.
Emissions increase
On a sector-by-sector basis, the largest quarterly increases in emissions were seen in electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply, which reported a 7.2% increase, followed by transportation and storage (+1.3%) and mining and quarrying (+0.9%).
On the other hand, both households (-2.0%) and manufacturing (-0.1%) recorded a decrease.
On a year-on-year basis, i.e. compared to the fourth quarter of 2024, greenhouse gas emissions across the EU increased by 0.4%, Eurostat said.
Country-by-country
In terms of Q4 emissions output from EU member states, Eurostat noted that emission levels were up in 19 EU countries and down in seven, while one country, Germany, recorded ‘stable’ emissions compared with the previous quarter.
The biggest quarter-on-quarter declines in greenhouse gas emissions were recorded in Finland (-3.2%), Malta (-2.0%) and Czechia (-0.6%), the data showed.
‘All of the 7 EU countries that had estimated decreases in greenhouse gas emissions (Bulgaria, Czechia, Spain, Lithuania, Malta, Slovakia and Finland) recorded an increase in GDP,’ Eurostat noted.
On a quarter-on-quarter basis. GDP rose by 0.2% in the fourth quarter of 2025, while compared to the same quarter the previous year, the increase was 1.5%.
The data forms part of the EU’s broader environmental accounting framework and is linked to the bloc’s climate targets under the European Union Climate Law. The legislation commits the bloc to reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030 compared with 1990 levels and achieving climate neutrality by 2050. Read more here.
