Nordic Sustainability Briefing — 2 September 2026
New EEA data show falling emissions from Europe's newest cars and vans as electric models gain ground, even as the agency warns the EU remains off track on most of its 2030 environmental goals. Elsewhere, the Green Software Foundation moved beyond carbon accounting, publishing a new specification for measuring software energy use and broadening its focus to water and waste impacts.
EEA: new car and van CO2 emissions fell sharply in 2025 as EV share rose
The European Environment Agency reported that average CO2 emissions from new cars registered in Europe fell to 96.7 g/km in 2025, 10 g/km lower than 2024, driven mainly by battery-electric vehicles reaching an 18.9% share. New vans averaged 172.1 g/km, down 12.8 g/km, with fully electric vans at 10.3% of registrations.
Green Software Foundation publishes Software Energy Efficiency (SEE) specification
The GSF released the Software Energy Efficiency specification, a methodology for calculating a software system's energy consumption rate per functional unit of work, where lower scores are better. Unlike the carbon-focused SCI standard, SEE isolates energy consumption alone, giving developers an undiluted measure of how much electricity their software uses.
Green Software Foundation broadens scope beyond carbon to energy, water and waste
The GSF said its earliest work in 2021 focused on carbon via the SCI specification, but argued carbon alone no longer captures software's full environmental impact. It noted a carbon-optimised workload may still consume significant water for cooling, and an energy-efficient one may drive premature hardware turnover creating embodied emissions.
EEA: EU off track for most 2030 environmental goals
In its 8th Environment Action Programme assessment, the EEA found the EU remains likely off track for most 2030 environmental goals, citing rising climate risks, slow transitions in production and consumption, and weakening enabling conditions. It concluded that meeting the objectives will require faster, better-resourced implementation of existing legislation.