Romania achieved the largest reduction in greenhouse gases in the region. Agriculture pollutes more than industrial processes

Romania achieved the largest reduction in greenhouse gases in the region compared to 1990, from 257 m tonnes of CO2 equivalent to 113 m tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2022. Relative to the population, greenhouse gas emissions decreased from 11.1 tons per capita, to 5.9 tons per capita, according to an Alpha Bank analysis sent to HotNews.ro on Thursday.

Most of these emissions consisted of emissions of carbon oxides (66%) and methane (23%). Romania stands out among the countries in the region due to the double weight in greenhouse gas emissions of methane, a gas that does not remain in the atmosphere as long as CO2, but because it absorbs much more solar energy it has a much greater greenhouse effect higher.

The most polluting activities remained fuel-burning activities, which generated 3.9 tonnes per capita of greenhouse gases in 2022. The rest of greenhouse gas emissions were due to industrial processes (0.7 tonnes per capita) and agriculture (1 ton per capita). In Romania, agriculture pollutes more than industrial processes, just like in Poland, Bulgaria and Greece, but such a big difference in pollution between the two sectors is only in Poland.

Most of the pollution resulting from the burning of fuels is generated by the transport and energy sectors. Compared to 1990, pollution in the energy sector decreased (from 3.1 tons per capita to 0.9 tons per capita), but in the transport sector it increased (from 0.5 tons per capita to 1.1 tons per capita ).

The other two sources of pollution by burning fuel are construction industry and buildings. Compared to 1990, pollution in the construction industry decreased (from 2.3 tons per capita to 0.7 tons per capita), and pollution from buildings increased (from 0.5 tons per capita to 0.6 tons per capita ). The trend of pollution by sector was in line with the trend of the region, except for buildings whose pollution decreased in all countries of the region. Although the halving of pollution caused by fuel losses (fugitive emissions) is remarkable (from 1.5 tons per capita to 0.6 tons per capita) it remains the same as in Poland, above the level achieved by countries in the region (0.1 tonnes per capita in Italy, 0.2 tonnes per capita in Hungary and 0.3 tonnes per capita in Greece, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic).

Romania reduced greenhouse gas emissions from 2022 by 56% compared to 1990, above the 55% target set by the European Commission for 2030

However, efforts to reduce pollution must be maintained to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. Romania still emits greenhouse gases of 133 tons of CO2 equivalent, which means the need to reduce emissions in parallel with increasing the CO2 absorption capacity of the land and forests. In 2022, this capacity rose to 49.3 tons of CO2 equivalent, above the target of 26.5 tons of CO2 equivalent set for 2030 by the European Commission, Romania being the only country in the region with such a performance in the conditions in which the forested surface has increased easily up to 30% of the country’s surface.

There is a whole set of measures that is recommended for reducing pollution, all equally important and mutually reinforcing. First of all, the expansion of the use of technologies based on renewable energy resources for the generation of electricity is a widespread approach and started many years ago. Of course, the mix of usable renewable resources depends on existing technologies, resource availability, climatic conditions determined by the geographical position of each country. Romania and Greece have the largest share of installed electricity generation capacity based on renewable resources (60% and 59%, respectively).

In Romania, the renewable resources used in order of importance are water (35.6%), wind (16.3%) and the sun (7.7%), while in Greece they are the sun (23.7%), wind (20 .5%) and waters (14.5%).

Second, increasing energy efficiency can reduce the amount of energy needed. In 2022, Romania had the third highest energy efficiency in the region, after Italy and Greece – of 6 euros per kg of oil equivalent used, and the highest increase in energy efficiency in the region compared to 2000 (by 2 .6 times compared to 1.9 times in Poland and Bulgaria, 1.7 times in the Czech Republic and Hungary, 1.4 times in Greece and 1.3 times in Italy).

Third, public spending on environmental protection can finance measures where ecological balances are precarious and the natural capacity to absorb CO2 can be improved. Of course, these expenses depend on the fiscal space in the national budgets. In Romania, in the period 2017-2022, annual public expenditures for environmental protection were the lowest, after Poland (0.7% of GDP).

The green transition is expensive. The European Commission estimates the costs at 700 billion euros per year until 2030, which means approximately 5% of EU GDP

Every member country of the European Union needs spending of a similar magnitude. Funding sources can be diverse. In addition to the allocated European funds, financing for the green transition can be obtained domestically from environmental taxes and green bond issues. In Romania, during the period 2017-2021, environmental taxes represented 2.1% of GDP each year, being represented almost entirely by energy taxes, and green bonds, worth 0.5 billion USD in 2021 and 0 .2 billion USD in 2022 were issued by the private sector. For the first time, in February 2024, sovereign green bonds worth 2 billion euros were issued. In the coming period, the volumes obtained from both sources of financing are likely to increase if we take into account Italy’s experience, which is more advanced in this field.

Romania has a comparative advantage in the green transition compared to the region, which must be maintained in order to achieve the objective of climate neutrality by 2050.

The European Green Deal aims for a climate-neutral Europe by 2050. The objective is to reach net zero by that year, i.e. the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted into the atmosphere to be equal to the amount of CO2 removed from the atmosphere. Globally, natural sinks (forests, soil, oceans) are estimated to remove between 9.5 and 11 gigatons of CO2 per year. Currently, global CO2 emissions (37.8 gigatons in 2021) far exceed the natural capacity to remove CO2. For this reason, there is a simultaneous need for measures to reduce CO2 emissions and increase CO2 removal capacity. The European Climate Law, in force from July 2021, sets an intermediate target for the amount of greenhouse gas emissions to be achieved by 2030, 55% lower than in 1990. The target could become a 57% reduction if the absorption capacity of lands and forests will be increased to 310 million tons of CO2 by 2030 as stipulated by regulation 839/2023.