Press Release: Climate change: Commission welcomed further progress towards meeting EU’s Kyoto Protocol target

European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas welcomed the progress made by many Member States in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions in 2006. The emissions inventory compiled by the European Environment Agency for 2006, the latest year for which complete data is available, showed that EU-15 emissions dropped by 0.8% from 2005, taking emissions to 2.7% below their levels in the base year (1990 in most cases). This put the EU-15 well on track to meeting its Kyoto Protocol target of keeping average emissions between 2008 and 2012 at least 8% below base year levels.