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• The entrance of new countries into EU increased the trade among these countries and the EU's old members. This scenario of changes in trade patterns influenced the distribution of environmental pressures among countries, in particular, CO 2 emissions. • The changes in economic structure in the New European Union countries, given their insertion in a globally integrated supply chain, are important to explain the evolution in their CO 2 emissions. • Sourcing pattern changes contributed to the increase of CO 2 emissions in the New European Union countries. • The emissions' reductions associated with technology advances were not large to fully compensate for increases due to the change in sourcing patterns in the New European Union countries. This paper's interest lies in the environmental pressures of the European Union (EU). EU membership requires a series of economic and political changes that should impact a country's production and consumption structures and its trade relationships. These changes, in turn, will affect CO 2 emissions sources and levels. This is especially true for the new Member States that joined during the 2004–2007 enlargement of the European Union, given the difference in their levels of development and production structure. As these countries increase participation in a globally integrated production chain their emission's structure and level should change. Using a Structural Decomposition Analysis we are able to quantify the main drivers of changes in emissions differentiating six components, namely: emissions intensity, industrial structure and sourcing, consumer preferences, final demand sourcing and consumption levels. Grouping the countries into five groups, New European Union countries, Old European Union countries, the United States of America, China, and the Rest of the World, we measure trading pattern changes and their impact on CO 2 emission levels. The main results show that, although New European Union countries countries' emissions generally declined, the changes were not large enough to offset their increased emissions from access to more and wider ranging export demand. Increased CO 2 emissions embodied in final goods exports were especially notable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]