AFP - The 15 European Union (EU) members which pledged to curb greenhouse gases by an overall eight percent under the UN's Kyoto Protocol are on track to beat the target, the European Environment Agency (EEA) said on Thursday.

Under the 1997 Protocol, the EU-15 promised as a whole to reduce emissions of six greenhouse gases by eight percent by a 2008-2012 timeframe compared to 1990 levels.

"The latest projections indicate that the EU-15 will go further, reaching a total reduction of more than 13 percent below the base year," the Copenhagen-based EEA said in a press release.

The figures are based on projections by member-states.

These projections have started to factor in the recent economic downturn, but even so, emissions of greenhouse gases "may still be overstated in the short term," the agency said. "As such, the recession could bring about further cuts in emissions."

Even so, reductions in the 2008-2012 period will entail government purchases of emissions credits under the Kyoto Protocol's carbon trading mechanism and the trading of allowances by corporations under the EU's carbon market, the Emissions Trading System.

They will also require claiming forests as "sinks" that offset national emissions, the EEA said.

These tools are contested by some greens, who see them as a way of buying or writing off national or corporate emissions rather than reducing them in absolute terms.

The EU's eight percent pledge was shared out into national targets by the 15 EU nations at the time of Kyoto's signing.

Five members -- Britain, France, Germany, Greece and Sweden -- have already reduced domestic emissions below their individual targets, the EEA said.

"Only Austria expects to fall short of its commitment under current conditions and will have to intensify its efforts to reduce emissions in non-ETS sectors," it said.

Current emissions pledges under the Kyoto Protocol expire at the end of 2012.

Talks are underway for a new global accord on how to tackle carbon emissions from 2013. They are due to climax at a worldwide conference, running in Copenhagen from December 7-18, gathering the 192 members of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Kyoto's parent treaty.