In our country, CO₂ emissions from major industry and aviation decreased by more than 10 percent last year, marking the largest drop since the financial crisis. The significant decrease is largely due to the downturn in the industry, high energy prices, weak demand and industries focus on producing energy more efficiently.
According to De Tijd, companies within the European Emissions Trading System (ETS) emitted 4.26 million tons of greenhouse gases less last year compared to the previous year, representing a decrease of 10.5 percent. This measurement is in CO₂ equivalents, which is a measure that converts the impact of all greenhouse gases into the impact in CO₂. At the European level, the decline was even more pronounced at 15.5 percent.
The data includes companies such as major cement and steel producers, chemical installations, refineries, power stations and airlines for intra-European flights are subject to emissions trading. These companies are required to produce an emission allowance for every tonne of CO₂ they emit and record it in the greenhouse gas register. Over 280 industrial installations and power plants in Belgium are subject to emissions trading along with intra-European flights which represent about 40 percent of all CO₂ emissions in the country.
The chemical sector saw a significant reduction in production capacity due to high energy prices and weak demand leading many companies to scale back production while industries have been focusing on producing energy more efficiently with stable greenhouse gas emissions despite increased production since 2004. Additionally two large industrial installations underwent maintenance work last year contributing to
