BERLIN , May 7 (UPI) -- Germany is the European Union’s worst polluter, with carbon dioxide emissions rising at a time when most nations in the 28-member economic organization have seen their numbers fall.
Germany has promoted itself as an environmentally conscious country, with among the world’s most stringent environmental laws and a politically powerful Green Party.
Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency, released official data Wednesday that showed Germany’s carbon dioxide emissions rising by two percent in 2013 to 760 million tons, Europe’s largest. Twenty-two EU countries saw declining emissions in the same period.
The greatest reductions in carbon dioxide, which accounts for 80 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases and causes global warming, came from Cyprus, Romania and Spain. Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Portugal, France and Poland saw increases.
Eurostat noted Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Poland, Spain and the Netherlands account for 77 percent of the EU’s carbon dioxide emissions.
