EEA Critical of Slovenia's Emissions, Praises Waste Collection

Brussels, 29 November

Slovenia got off well in the European Environment Agency (EEA) report "The European Environment - State and Outlook 2005". Although the agency has noted a two-fold increase in greenhouse gas emissions attributed to traffic, it praises Slovenia for the high share of renewable energy sources and a slight reduction of municipal waste.

The report, which the agency released on Tuesday, says that Slovenia will have to take action to reduce traffic emissions. However, the rise is offset by lower emissions in manufacturing and agriculture.
The agency notes that the number of cattle should rise again due to EU quotas. Yet on the other hand, agricultural policy is expected to reduce agricultural emissions by introducing good agricultural practice in fertilising and establishing biogas installations for electricity and heating production.
Although Slovenia's energy intensity is above average due to the still large share of manufacturing (accounts for 27% of value added), and primary energy consumption has been growing since 1992 by 2.7 % per year, the report says that 11% of the primary energy comes from renewable sources.
According to the EEA, there is still considerable potential to develop traditional renewable sources, most notably by raising the exploitation of technically exploitable hydro potential from the current 43 % to 52 % by 2013 by building a chain of hydro-electric power plants along the Sava river.
Slovenia is also praised for having decreased the amount of collected municipal waste. The "small but real" decrease is a result of measures taken to implement EU waste management directives, including management of packaging waste and the establishment of sort-by-source systems.
These measures are expected to reduce generated waste further, yet improvements are needed in waste management since a large proportion of generated waste currently ends up at landfills.

EEA Critical of Slovenia's Emissions, Praises Waste Collection

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