The European Union is making a full-on effort to cut emissions at home, but 35% of its carbon footprint was generated abroad in 2023, according to data from the European Climate Foundation (ECF) and climate consultancy Matière.
The new figures, which show that more than one-fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions are now linked to global trade, create a political problem for Brussels, which is heavily investing in the decarbonisation of factories, power plants and cars even as the bloc still consumes goods whose production generates substantial emissions abroad.
The new Traded Emissions Tracker reveals that in Ireland, Sweden, Austria, Cyprus, Malta and Spain, imports accounted for more than 40% of the national carbon footprint in 2023, excluding intra-EU trade.
The tracker, which covers 45 major economies from 2010 to 2023, shows that trade-related emissions have grown faster than global emissions overall, widening by 10 percentage points between 1995 and 2023.
The China problem
