11 EU Countries Ahead of Their 2020 RE Targets: Eurostat

11 have already reached the level required to meet their national 2020 targets and moreover, 2 countries are around 1 percentage point away from their 2020 targets.

The latest data report by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, released yesterday shows that the European Union produced about 17.5 % of its power needs from renewable sources in 2017. On the other hand faring better than the rest, 11 countries out of the bloc’s 28 members had already achieved a 2020 Renewable Energy Goal.

“The EU is on track to meet its 2020 renewable target, with 11 member states already above their national targets,” said Climate Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete, who has called for the bloc to aim for net zero emissions.

"Among the 28 EU Member States, 11 have already reached the level required to meet their national 2020 targets: Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Croatia, Italy, Lithuania, Hungary, Romania, Finland, and Sweden. Moreover, Latvia and Austria are around 1 percentage point (pp) away from their 2020 targets,” the report stated.

The report said Sweden had the highest share of renewable energy consumption, with more than half its energy coming from renewable sources in 2017. Luxembourg had the lowest proportion, with renewables accounting for just 6.4% of energy use.

The Eurostat data suggests the Netherlands, France, Ireland, Britain, Poland, and Belgium were among the EU nations still a few percentage points off their 2020 objective, as of 2017.

In 2017, just 6.6% of the energy used in the Netherlands came from sustainable sources, but the target is 14% by 2020. Luxembourg, with the lowest share of renewable energy, finished last, with 6.4% of energy consumption derived from alternate energy sources in 2017, and a 2020 target of 11%. Malta has the third worst share of renewable energy as the country is 2.8% behind its 2020 target. It only got 7.2% from these sources in 2017, the third lowest after Luxembourg (6.4%) and the Netherlands (6.6%).

The targets are part of the EU’s overall drive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 in line with the Paris Agreement to keep global warming well below 2 degrees. The EU as a whole aims to make sure 20% of gross final energy consumption comes from renewable sources by 2020.