South Korea's greenhouse gas emissions are believed to have declined slightly last year, contrary to perceptions that they were rising.

According to a tentative tally by the Environment Ministry's Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Research Center, emissions in 2019 fell three-point-four percent to a little over 700 million tons.

A decrease was particularly noticeable in power generation and heat production sectors with emissions down by more than 19 million tons.

This is believed to be due to a drop in coal output and more reliance on renewable energy as part of fine dust reduction measures.

Fuel consumption for heating also dropped four percent due to mild winter temperatures.

On the other hand, greenhouse gas emissions in the transport industry rose one-point-eight percent last year as a result of lower oil prices.

Per-capita emission is estimated at 13-point-six tons, down three-point-six percent from 2018.