The EU economy’s seasonally adjusted greenhouse gas emissions in the third quarter of 2025 were estimated at 828 million tonnes of CO2-equivalents (CO2-eq), a 1.1% increase compared with the second quarter of 2025 (819 million tonnes of CO2-eq). At the same time, the EU’s gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 0.4% in the third quarter of 2025, compared with the previous quarter of 2025.
This information comes from data on seasonally adjusted quarterly estimates of greenhouse gas emissions by economic activity published by Eurostat today. Quarterly estimates of greenhouse gas emissions complement quarterly socio-economic data, such as GDP or employment. This article presents the key findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article on quarterly greenhouse gas emissions.
The economic sectors with the largest increases in greenhouse gas emissions were households (+3.6%) and manufacturing (+1.4%). Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply (-0.8%) was the only sector that recorded a decrease.
Source datasets: env_ac_aigg_q and namq_10_gdp
Compared with the third quarter of 2024, seasonally adjusted emissions remained unchanged, while the EU’s seasonally and calendar adjusted GDP increased by 1.6%.
Greenhouse gas emissions decreased in 10 EU countries
In the third quarter of 2025, seasonally-adjusted greenhouse gas emissions increased in 17 EU countries and decreased in 10 countries compared with the second quarter of 2025.
The largest reductions in greenhouse gases were estimated for Estonia (-17.4%), Slovenia (-5.7%) and Cyprus (-5.2%).
Out of the 10 EU countries that registered decreases in greenhouse gas emissions, only Lithuania recorded also a decline in GDP. The other 9 EU countries (Bulgaria, Estonia, Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania and Slovenia) have decreased emissions while growing or maintaining their GDP levels.
Source datasets: env_ac_aigg_q and namq_10_gdp
For more information
- Statistics Explained article on quarterly greenhouse gas emissions
- Thematic section on climate change
- Database on climate change
- Environmental accounts dashboard
Methodological notes
- Metadata on quarterly greenhouse gas emissions.
- The data presented here are estimates by Eurostat, except for the Netherlands, Sweden and Spain that provide their own data.
- The figures are seasonally adjusted. Data provided by countries are seasonally adjusted by Eurostat. These adjusted series enable quarter-on-quarter change analyses. More information on the seasonal adjustment is provided in a technical note.
- Eurostat’s methodology attributes international transport emissions to individual countries including these emissions in each country’s total, following the international System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) standard. This differs from the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement rules.
- The EU and the EU countries report annually on their greenhouse gas emissions to the UN. The so-called ‘Kyoto basket’ of greenhouse gases includes carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and fluorinated gases. They are expressed in a common unit: CO2-equivalents. EU countries are required to monitor their emissions of these gases for all source sectors based on internationally agreed obligations and rules. The EU greenhouse gas inventory managed by the European Environment Agency covers emissions from 1990 to 2 years before the current year and is submitted to the UN each spring after quality checks.
- According to the European Climate Law, the EU’s climate target is to achieve a -55% net reduction by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2050. The European Commission monitors and reports progress towards their GHG emission reduction targets on an annual basis using the data in the Climate Action Progress Report.
