Metadata: Greenhouse gas emissions

Flanders Environment Agency (VMM)

This indicator examines the evolution of total greenhouse gas emissions in the Flemish Region and makes a distinction between:

1. emissions covered by the European Emission Trading System (ETS) mainly from the energy and industry sectors
2. emissions not covered by the European Emissions Trading Scheme (ESR): emissions from transport, households, trade & services, agriculture and some parts of the industry and energy sectors.

This includes all gases and emissions included in the European burden sharing under the Kyoto Protocol (CO₂ , CH₄ , N₂O, SF₆ , HFC, PFC and NF3), and the emissions have been recalculated to CO₂ equivalents.

Emissions and sinks (forests and crops on fields that store CO₂) resulting from (changes in) land use and forest management (so-called LULUCF) are not taken into account. The reason for this is that the European burden sharing and the burden sharing between the regions in our country do not take this into account either.

European Emission Trading Scheme (ETS): part of the European climate policy. System in which installations must submit one emission allowance for each tonne of CO₂ emitted. The total number of emission allowances available is limited, but installations can freely exchange these allowances among themselves. As the number of available emission allowances decreases each year, a scarcity is created in the market. Installations then have a choice: either emit less or buy emission allowances.

ESR emissions: all emissions covered by the Effort Sharing Regulation (ESR). These are mainly emissions from transport, households, trade and services and agriculture. This is subject to an EU-wide target, but this target is further translated at member state level. Within Belgium, the ESR target is then also further divided between the different regions.

The data published by VMM are aligned with the figures that Flanders/Belgium officially reports to the international level (EU, UN) and thus aligned with the calculation rules of the EU and the IPCC guidelines of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The data quality is very good and the international data comparability is very high.

Flanders Environment Agency (VMM): Greenhouse gas emissions(opens in new window)

Greenhouse gas emissions