European ETS emissions fall 13.3% in 2020

London, (Quantum Commodity Intelligence) - Greenhouse gas emissions emitted by entities covered under Europe's emissions trading scheme fell 13.3% last year, the EU Commission said Thursday, highlighting the impact of the pandemic on emitting heat-trapping gases.

The scheme, which covers the power sector, aviation and heavy industry such as metals, cement lime and glass, represents around 40% of total greenhouse gas emissions.

Aviation emissions, unsurprisingly, saw the biggest fall, with carbon dioxide emissions plummeting 64.1% year on year.

Power sector emissions fell 14.9%, a dynamic that the EU Commission said was due to "reduced electricity consumption due to the pandemic and previously identified decarbonisation trends," such as the continued shift from gas to coal and the increase in production of renewables.

Emissions from industry decreased by 7%, with reductions observed in most sectors.

Specifically, iron and steel emissions fell 11.7% cement 5.1%, chemicals 4% and refineries 8.1%.

The Commission said it was not yet possible to "determine what proportion of these reductions is due to increased emissions efficiency."

Emissions from stationary sources, such as factories and power plants, totalled 1.331 billion, down 11.2% on the year, while those from flights totalled 24.5 million mt, down 64% on the 68 million mt pumped out the year before.

Emissions from airlines are only included for flights that both take off and land in the European Union.

Previous plans to broaden the scheme to all flights that either take off or land were scrapped in 2013 over fears it would cause a trade war with China and the US.