EU trend of CO2 reduction seems to have stopped

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions account for around 80 percent of all of the EU's greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to potentially disastrous climate change.

In 2016, carbon emissions dropped by 0.4 percent compared to 2015, Eurostat said in a press release.

But in 2015, CO2 emissions had increased by 0.7 percent compared to 2014.

In other words, last year's CO2 emissions increased by 0.29 percent compared to 2014, which means that for the second consecutive year the EU's carbon emissions are higher than in 2014, albeit very slightly.

The flatlining contrasts with figures from 2014, when emissions dropped by 5 percent compared to the year before. In the two years before, the year-on-year decrease had also been at least 2 percent.

It was in 2014 that the EU had reached its long-term target for 2020: to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 percent compared to 1990 - it had achieved a 22.9 percent reduction.

If the EU does not increase its CO emissions significantly, it will achieve its 2020 goal, but critics say that is not enough to help reduce the risk of global warming.

In any case, EU citizens still have a much larger carbon footprint that is 2.5 times that of inhabitants in the developing world.

Within the EU, most of the CO2 is emitted by its largest member. Last year, Germany accounted for 22.9 percent of the EU's CO2 emissions. Germany's CO2 emissions had increased by 0.7 percent compared to the year before.