Malta leads all European Union countries for the largest increase in year-on-year greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the first quarter of 2023 to the first quarter of 2024, data recently published by the EU's statistics agency Eurostat shows.
While the European Union as a whole region experienced a 4.0% decrease in GHG emissions, Malta observed a staggering increase of 8.8%.
Malta was one of just seven countries out of the EU's 27 Member States to observe an increase in greenhouse gas emissions over this annual period. These other countries were Lithuania with an increase of 7.4%, followed by Latvia (+5.7%), Greece (+1.5%), Romania (+0.7%), Slovenia (+0.4%), and Cyprus (+0.03%).
All of these countries also experienced an annual increase in their GDP, with Malta also registering the highest growth in this regard.
On the other side of these statistics, the EU's best performers in reducing estimated levels of greenhouse gas emissions were Bulgaria (-15.2%), Germany (-6.7%), and Belgium (-6.0%). From these three countries, Bulgaria and Belgium recorded year-on-year economic growth, as the German economy experienced a minor economic downturn.
From the 20 Member States that are estimated to have decreased their emissions within this timeframe, 12 were able to do so while growing their GDP. These countries were Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, France, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, and Sweden.
The eight EU countries to decrease their GHG emissions and record a decline in GDP over the same period were Austria, Czechia, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.
The entire EU bloc observed a modest GDP increase of +0.3% between the first quarters of 2023 and 2024.
Eurostat calculated that throughout this period, the EU economy emitted an estimated 894 million tonnes of CO2-equivalents in Q1 2024. It is estimated that 931 million tonnes of CO2-equivalents were emitted by the EU Member States in Q1 2023.
Eurostat also found that the two most impactful sectors for the Union's overall decreased emissions for these first quarters were electricity and gas supply and households. The sector pertaining to electricity and gas supply contributed a contribution of -12.6% to all emissions, while households factored for -4.4%.
Earlier this year, on 22 April, Energy Minister Miriam Dalli stated that Malta's advances in substituting heavy fuel oil to cleaner energy sources resulted in a 60% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the country's energy sector.
Minister Dalli said this during the General Assembly of the International Energy Agency in Abu Dhabi.