Exploring European countries' emission reduction targets, abatement costs and measures needed under the 2007 EU reduction objectives

Climate mitigation costs of EU countries highly depend on internal burden-sharing

It is technically feasible for the European Union to meet the unilateral 20% greenhouse gas emission reduction objective as adopted by the European Union in 2007. The adopted 30% multi-lateral reduction objective can be met too when Clean Development Mechanism and emissions trading is allowed; however, this may lead to higher abatement costs for the EU. Energy efficiency improvements assume by far the largest share in emission reductions, followed by fuel shift switch and non-CO₂ reduction options. The emission reductions and costs for the individual European countries show a wide range, and are highly dependent on the chosen post-2012 regime for internal EU burden-sharing (based, for example, on equal costs or convergence towards equal per capita emissions), and to a lesser extend on the overall EU reduction objective (20% unilateral or 30% multilateral). Hence, an agreement on the burden-sharing regime is more significant than the choice of the overall EU reduction level.