Greenhouse gas emissions: 26% lower in 2023 than in 1990
Renewables drive improvement. Transport sector remains critical
ISPRA releases official data on greenhouse gas emissions in Italy
In 2023, national greenhouse gas emissions decreased by 26% compared to 1990 levels. This trend is due to the increase in energy efficiency from renewable sources, in industrial sectors and the transition to the use of fuels with a lower carbon content.
Greenhouse gas emissions also decreased compared to the previous year (2022) by 6.8% and reached a total of 385 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent.
However, not all sectors showed a reduction in emissions; emissions produced by the transport sector, which derive for over 90% from road transport, continue to increase also in 2023 and are over 7% compared to 1990. Despite European directives, emission levels from road transport have remained constantly high, settling at the 2014 values and thus exceeding the maximum permitted ceiling.
These are the Ispra data that emerged from the latest edition of the "National Inventory of Greenhouse Gas Emissions" communicated, in conjunction with the emission scenarios for 2055, to the European Union.
In addition to transport (28% of the national total), the energy production (21%), residential (18%) and manufacturing (13%) sectors are, in the reference period, those that contribute to more than half of national greenhouse gas emissions.
With regard to the national objectives established by the European Effort Sharing regulation, which provides for a 43.7% reduction compared to 2005 of emissions produced by transport, residential - heating of buildings - agriculture, waste and non-ETS industry, the failure to reduce transport emissions has led to a progressive approach of Italian emission levels to the maximum permitted ceilings, until they were exceeded in 2021 (5.5 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent) and in 2022 (5.4 MtCO2 eq) and in 2023 (8.2 MtCO2 eq).
The reduction in the energy sector is therefore mainly attributable to the reduction in emissions from the manufacturing and construction industries, which in 2023 will decrease by 45.2%, as will those from the energy industries sector (-47.3% in 2023), compared to an increase in total energy production (from 216.9 Terawatt hours – TWh - to 264.7.6 TWh) and electricity consumption (from 218.7 TWh to 287.4 TWh).
Variazioni percentuali delle emissioni dal 1990
Ripartizione delle emissioni nazionali per settore
