Bulgaria has surpassed the targets for greenhouse gas emissions set by the Kyoto Protocol, even though this is primarily the result of the restructuring, (an euphemism for the collapse) of its industry after 1989.

According to Georgi Stefanov, an expert from the World Wildlife Fund, quoted by BGNES, Bulgaria is "a real champion" in that respect.

All Eastern European countries are about to go beyond the 8.0% reduction of their greenhouse gas emissions between 2008 and 2012 compared with their emissions from 1990, with Bulgaria and Romania reducing in half their carbon output. The Czech Republic reduced its emissions by 27.5%. 

The WWF has pointed out that this decrease is primarily the result of the closure of many large industrial plants in the former communist states after 1990, rather than the consequence of a calculated effort.

Stefanov has emphasized that Bulgarian plants have started only in the past couple years to modernize with respect to environmental standards, and they still used 4 to 8 times more energy per unit of GDP than do the more advanced EU states.

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