GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS

Last update
20.09.2012

Key question

Are the national and international greenhouse gas emission targets of the Czech Republic being met successfully?

Key message

The trend in aggregate greenhouse gas emissions in the Czech Republic is stagnant at the beginning of 21st century, with slight year-to-year fluctuations in both directions and with a close tie to the economy´s performance. The Czech Republic’s current commitment to the Kyoto Protocol is being met by a large margin. Greenhouse gas emissions from transport have been declining since 2007.

In the interannual comparison, the total aggregate greenhouse gas emissions rose by 3.3% in 2010, however, it was only a change associated with a significant drop in emissions in 2009 due to the economic recession. The increase in emissions occurred mainly in the energy and industry sectors. The negative trend in the area of waste continues; the emissions have been growing steadily since 1990. The decrease in emission intensity of the economy came to a standstill after 2008; specific values of the greenhouse gas emission indicators per capita and per economic performance in the Czech Republic continue to be well above average in the European context.

Overall assessment	Change since 1990	Change since 2000	Last year-to-year change

The Czech Republic is a signatory to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol binds the Czech Republic to reduce aggregate greenhouse gas emissions in the 2008–2012 control period by 8% compared to the base year 1990. New commitments after the end of the first Kyoto Protocol control period have not been agreed upon although it has been decided to continue in the Kyoto Protocol also in the second control period for the years 2013–2017, or 2020, as the case may be.

A climate-energy package was adopted in December 2008 at the European Community level; the package introduces joint approaches and solutions in the area of climate protection, security of energy supplies and competitiveness of European economies. The package contains three directives and one decision1 to help to meet the EU target – i.e. to reduce the total greenhouse gas emissions in the EU by at least 20% and to achieve a 20% share of renewable energy sources in the final energy consumption by the year 2020 compared to the 1990 level. There is a commitment resulting from the climate-energy package for the Czech Republic, i.e. to reduce emissions in the sectors falling within the EU ETS by 21% by the year 2020 compared to 2005, and in the sectors outside the EU ETS not to increase the emissions by more than 9% over the same period.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the negative impacts of climate change is also one of the priorities of the current State Environmental Policy of the Czech Republic and other national strategic documents such as the National Reforms Programme and the Czech Republic´s Climate Protection Policy. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is one of the core areas in the European competitiveness strategy Europe 2020.

Chart 2: Greenhouse gas emissions per capita, the Czech Republic [t CO₂ eq. per capita, t CO₂ per capita]
Source: The Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, The Czech Statistical Office

Chart 3: Shares of inventory categories on the total greenhouse gas emissions (for the last available year, see data), the Czech Republic [%]
Source: The Czech Hydrometeorological Institute

Chart 4: Greenhouse gas emissions in individual inventory categories related to the reference year of the Kyoto protocol (1990), the Czech Republic [% of the reference year]
Source: The Czech Hydrometeorological Institute

Chart 5: Development of the total greenhouse gas emissions and contribution of the individual inventory categories, the Czech Republic [%]
Source: The Czech Hydrometeorological Institute

Chart 6: Specific greenhouse gas emissions per capita (for the last available year, see data), an international comparison [t CO₂ eq. per capita]
Source: EEA, The Czech Hydrometeorological Institute

Indicator assessment – text part

In 2010, aggregated emissions of greenhouse gases in the Czech Republic have reached a level of 139.2 Mt CO2 eq. (excluding the LULUCF sector), which indicates an annual increase by 3.3% after a period of decline in 2007 to 2009. Fluctuations in emissions in the last three years can be associated with fluctuations in the economy´s performance and with its recovery in the latest reference year. The trend in emissions was stagnant in 2000-2007, and then it was declining slightly. From 1990, which is the reference year of the Kyoto Protocol, to 2010 the emissions decreased by almost 29%. The Czech Republic´s commitment was therefore met by a large margin. Declines in emissions from the LULUCF sector amounted to 5.5 Mt CO2 eq. in 2010, which is a value lower than that for the year 2009. Aggregated emissions including this sector amounted to 133.6 Mt CO2 eq. (compared to the previous year this is an increase by 4.5%).

The biggest increase in emissions in 2010 in comparison with the previous year was achieved in the categories of public electricity and heat production (around 2.5 Mt CO2 eq, i.e. by 4.7%) and industrial processes (about 0.8 Mt CO2 eq, i.e. by 7.9%) mainly due to the increase in emissions from the production of metals. The increase in industrial production in 2010 was connected with interannual growth of the economy (GDP) by 2.2%. Emissions from waste production and management have also been rising in long terms (in 2010 it was by 2.4%), namely this is due to increased emissions from landfills. Although the amount of landfilled waste decreased interannually by approximately 6.5% in 2010, the proportion of solid municipal waste in the total landfilled waste also dropped from 77% to 68%, namely at the expense of those kinds of waste from which more methane emission arise (mainly biomass).

Conversely, emissions from transport, after a period of significant growth after 2007, are falling; in 2010, emissions from transport decreased in interannual comparison by 1,053 kt CO2 eq., i.e. by 5.7%. In comparison with the year 2000, however, they grew by 41%, and compared to 1990, by 125%. Emissions from agriculture are also slightly decreasing (by 1.9% in year-to-year comparison); however, unlike transport, there is a long-term trend since 1990 when emissions from agriculture were by 50% higher than those in 2010.

In the greenhouse gas emissions structure by the individual source categories, there is a very slow decrease of the proportion of industry (the categories of combustion processes in industry and of industrial processes) and a stagnant proportion of public energy (namely around 40%). These categories, which include major stationary sources, take up approximately two thirds of the total national emissions while the rest of the emissions is produced by mobile and area sources. The share of transport increased significantly from 8.5% in 2000 to 12.5% in 2010; in recent years, however, it is stagnating due to decrease of emissions from this category, it even decreased in the year-to-year comparison by 1.2 percentage points. Emissions from agriculture amounted for 5.6% of the total emissions, and this share is declining gradually. Emissions from waste occupied 2.6% of the total emissions, and the trend has been growing.

In 2010, companies involved in the emission trading system (EU ETS) showed CO2 emissions in the amount of 75.6 Mt CO2, which represents a 2.4% increase as against the previous year. In 2011, the EU ETS emissions reached 74.2 Mt CO2, so this is a decrease by 1.9% (1.4 Mt of CO2). The proportion of CO2 emissions included in the emissions trading system in the total CO2 emissions amounted to 63.1% in 2010, which indicates that the proportion in the total aggregated emissions (excluding the LULUCF sector) was 54.4%. Therefore, the influence of emissions from the emissions trading system on the total emissions dynamics is therefore essential; for this reason, it is possible to expect a decline or at least stagnation in the emissions reported in the emission inventory for the year 2011. Compared to the year 2005, which is covered by the objective of the EU climate-energy package, the EU ETS emissions decreased by 10.1% by the year 2011. Achievement of the goal of reducing emissions by 21% by 2020 should be supported by a gradual reduction of the quantities of emission allowances allocated in 2013-2020, in connection with reduction of the proportion of allowances allocated for free.

Greenhouse gas emissions per capita (without LULUCF) reached the value of 13.2 t CO2 eq. in 2010 which is by 2.9% more than in 2009. Compared to 2000, the specific emissions per capita decreased by 6.6%; since 1990 there has been an approximately 30% reduction. The emission intensity of the economy, i.e. emissions production per unit of created economic performance, has been going down steadily in the Czech Republic since 2008; then the trend changes into stagnation. In interannual comparison, the 2010 emission intensity increased slightly by 0.5% to 39.1 kg CO2 eq. per a thousand CZK of GDP, namely because the emission growth was more significant than the GDP increase.

In the European context, the values of specific indicators of greenhouse gas emissions are relatively much above the average of both the EU15 and EU27 countries. Moreover, after 2000, the difference between the values of emissions per capita in the Czech Republic and average values for the EU15 and EU27 countries is not decreasing but it is growing slightly. In 2010, the Czech Republic´s emissions per capita were by 40.6% higher than those in the EU27; in 2000 it was by 34.8%. This is due to the fact that the rate of decline in aggregate greenhouse gas emissions per capita in the EU27 (by 10.4%) was greater than the decline in the emissions in the Czech Republic, which amounted to 6.6%. Among European countries, only Luxembourg, Estonia, Finland, Ireland and Cyprus have higher per capita emissions than the Czech Republic; the other countries have lower emissions.

Future prospects for greenhouse gas emissions are burdened by a number of uncertainties associated in particular with development of the Czech Republic´s economy, which is interconnected with developments in the EU27. Considering the fact that, in short terms, a significant growth in the Czech Republic´s economy is not expected, a slight decrease of the emissions is probable. In the longer terms, decline in emissions from the transport sector is likely to continue. Emissions from the energy industry will depend on the development of the fuel-energy base, especially as regards representation of nuclear energy and RES. Concerning emissions from the industry, fluctuations related to year-to-year changes in the amount of industrial production can be expected, however, the decline in longer terms would only be possible in the event of significant changes in the sectoral composition of the industry towards productions with less energy and emission intensity. According to the recently elaborated national prospects of greenhouse gas emission trends, the Czech Republic should ensure fulfilment of the obligations arising from the climate-energy package.

¹Directive 2009/28/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources; Directive 2009/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 amending Directive 2003/87/EC so as to improve and extend the greenhouse gas emission allowance trading scheme of the Community; Directive 2009/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on the geological storage of carbon dioxide; Decision No. 406/2009/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on the effort of Member States to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to meet the Community’s greenhouse gas emission reduction commitments up to 2020.

Data sources

The Czech Hydrometeorological Institute
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
The Czech Statistical Office
The Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic

Links to additional information

The Czech Hydrometeorological Institute’s Department of Climate Change
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
The European Environment Agency
The EEA Central Data Repository