Retour Emission of greenhouse gas in employment in decline

22 April 2022

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Since 2010, the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) per person employed has been on a continuous decline in the EU, which is due to a combination of decreasing GHG emissions and increasing employment numbers. In 2020, every employed person in the EU produced 13.6 tonnes of GHG emissions, the lowest value on record and 4.4 tonnes less than in 2010.

The greenhouse gas emissions intensity of employment measures the greenhouse gases emitted by the entire national economy per person employed.

Among the EU Member States, Denmark (24.7 tonnes of GHG per person employed), Ireland (23.2 t GHG per person employed) and Poland (20.9 t GHG) emitted the highest number of GHG per employed person in 2020.

In contrast, Sweden (8.1 t GHG per person employed) and Malta (7.2 t GHG per person employed) emitted the least. 

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This article is published on the occasion of the International Mother Earth Day.

Methodological note: 

  • This indicator is based on a calculation of two different datasets: air emission accounts (Greenhouse gas emissions, thousand tonnes and all NACE activities) [env_ac_ainah_r2] divided by national accounts employment data (total employment domestic concept, thousand persons and all NACE activities) [nama_10_a64_e]. Please note that the source link below the interactive chart leads only to the first dataset due to technical limitations.  


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