14 DAY TRIAL // The European Environment Agency (EEA) only recently published a new report stating that, as far as the year 2011 is concerned, the overall greenhouse gas emissions on this continent have decreased by as much as 2.5%.
Although it may very well be true that this is good news indeed, what might strike one as a tad puzzling is the fact that these figures were recorded in spite of higher coal consumption and a growing GDP (i.e. gross domestic product, meaning the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period).
However, as the European Environment Agency explains, this decrease in greenhouse emissions was most likely due to the fact that Europe experienced a slightly milder winter.
Just for the record, one could speculate that this milder winter came as a result of changing environmental conditions which need be linked to phenomena such as climate change and global warming.
Anyway, this means that keeping households and company headquarters warm for owners and employees was not a task all that difficult to perform and, therefore, less natural gas got to be burnt.
On the other hand, the use of renewable energy sources increased considerably and green-oriented advancements made in the transportation industry seem to have played their part in cutting down the overall carbon emissions for this continent.
More precisely: one other report made public by the European Environmental Agency pointed out how most of the cars sold in 2011 on this continent were roughly 3.3% more fuel-efficient than those put on the market in previous years.
As explained on the official website for the European Environmental Agency, the figures made public in this report fail in taking into consideration either carbon sinks, or the aviation and shipping industry, but it is expected that once these data is made available, a new analysis will be published.