Twelve Member States have achieved a share of renewable energy in their energy mix equal to or higher than the target they had set for 2020, the Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat) revealed on Thursday 23 January, according to figures for the year 2018.
These are Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Croatia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Cyprus, Finland and Sweden.
Hungary, Austria, Portugal and Romania are less than one percentage point away from their respective national targets for 2020.
The Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom, on the other hand, show the greatest delays, with a deviation of 4% or more from their target.
Among the renewables champions are Sweden, where more than half of the energy comes from renewable sources (54.6%), Finland (41.2%), Latvia (40.3%), Denmark (36.1%) and Austria (33.4%).
In contrast, the Member States with the lowest share of renewables in their energy mix are the Netherlands (7.4%), Malta (8.0%), Luxembourg (9.1%) and Belgium (9.4%).
While the EU target for 2020 is to increase the share of renewable energy in EU energy consumption to 20%, Eurostat estimates that this share reached 18% in 2018, an increase of 0.5% compared to 2017.
By 2030, the European Union aims to increase this share to at least 32%.
To consult the Eurostat press release: https://bit.ly/37mjt5A (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)