Consumption-driven emissions: new opportunities for EU climate mitigation

The document argues that the EU's territorial emission reductions mask a growing carbon footprint driven by the import of emissions-intensive goods. It identifies food, housing, and mobility as primary consumption hotspots and recommends binding EU-level targets, mandatory reporting for member states, and enhanced trade transparency to address these emissions.

• While the EU reduced territorial CO2 emissions by 29% between 1990 and 2020, it has been a net importer of CO2 emissions since 2015, meaning emissions from imported goods and services exceed those from exports.
• The primary consumption 'hotspots' for emissions in the EU are food, housing, and mobility. Among these, appliances show the largest variation in emissions between member states, followed by housing and mobility.
• China is the largest exporter of emissions to the EU, accounting for 8.5% of EU consumption-based emissions, followed by Russia (4.8%), the United States (1.6%), and India (1.6%).
• A significant majority of the EU's consumption-based CO2 emissions are generated internally; in 2021, 69% originated from imports between EU member states.
• Current EU climate efforts rely heavily on production efficiency and the 'polluter pays' principle, which the authors argue rarely targets the behavioural shifts needed for deep decarbonization.
• Existing official statistics on consumption-based emissions are incomplete, as they often exclude government consumption (11%), investments (20%), non-profit goods and services (1%), and changes in inventories (4%).

APA

Axelsson, K., Gong, J., Marcinkevičiūtė, S., Lambe, F., Carson, M., Suljada, T., Dugast, C., & Maquet, P. (2024). Consumption-driven emissions: new opportunities for EU climate mitigation. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/170628/consumptiondriven-emissions-new-opportunities-for-eu-climate-mitigation.pdf

Chicago

Axelsson, Katarina, Jindan Gong, Silvija Marcinkevičiūtė, Fiona Lambe, Marcus Carson, Timothy Suljada, César Dugast, and Pierre Maquet. Consumption-driven emissions: new opportunities for EU climate mitigation. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2024. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/170628/consumptiondriven-emissions-new-opportunities-for-eu-climate-mitigation.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{axelsson2024consumptiondriven, author = {Axelsson, Katarina and Gong, Jindan and Marcinkevičiūtė, Silvija and Lambe, Fiona and Carson, Marcus and Suljada, Timothy and Dugast, César and Maquet, Pierre}, title = {{Consumption-driven emissions: new opportunities for EU climate mitigation}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2024}, month = jun, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/170628/consumptiondriven-emissions-new-opportunities-for-eu-climate-mitigation.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }