In 2019, fossil fuels accounted for 71% of the total amount of energy necessary to meet the EU’s energy needs, down 10.9% compared to 1990, according to the latest figures from Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office, published on Thursday 4 February.
While the share of fossil fuels in the EU’s gross available energy is declining due to the rise of renewable energies, the EU still relies heavily on fossil fuels for its energy supply, Eurostat recalled.
The figures also show significant disparities between Member States. For the two island states of the EU, Malta and Cyprus, the share of fossil fuels in their gross available energy amounted to 97 and 92% respectively in 2019. This is followed by the Netherlands (92%), Poland (90%), Ireland (89%), Greece (86%) and Luxembourg (82%).
At the other end of the scale, Sweden (32%), Finland (43%) and France (50%) were the three countries least dependent on fossil fuels in 2019, while most other Member States had shares between 60 and 80%.
Finally, while this share increased slightly (+1%) in Latvia and Austria between 2018 and 2019 and remained stable in eight other EU countries, it decreased particularly in Estonia (-12%), Slovakia (-4%) and Belgium and Denmark (-3% each).
See Eurostat figures: https://bit.ly/2YIJNEn (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)