Estonia one of three EU member states to have already met 2020 renewable energy target

  • 2015-03-11
  • from wire reports and TBT staff, TALLINN

According to the latest figures from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, Estonia is one of just three EU member states that has already reached its renewable energy consumption target for 2020. Lithuania is less than 0.5 percentage points from reaching its target, while Latvia is 2.9 percentage points away. 

In 2013, the share of energy from renewable sources in gross final consumption of energy reached 15.0 percent in the EU, compared with 8.3 percent in 2004, the first year for which the data is available.

Since 2004, the share of renewable sources in gross final consumption of energy grew significantly in all member states, with 13 member-states having at least doubled their share of renewables over the last 10 years. With 52.1 percent, Sweden had by far in 2013 the highest share of energy from renewable sources in its gross final consumption of energy, ahead of Latvia (37.1 percent), Finland (36.8 percent) and Austria (32.6 percent). In contrast, the lowest proportions of renewables were found in Luxembourg (3.6 percent), Malta (3.8 percent), the Netherlands (4.5 percent) and the United Kingdom (5.1 percent).

As well as Estonia, Sweden and Bulgaria have also already reached their renewable energy targets for 2020. At the opposite end of the scale, the United Kingdom (9.9 percentage points from reaching its 2020 target), the Netherlands (9.5 pp), France (8.8 pp) and Ireland (8.2 pp) are the furthest away from their target.

The Europe 2020 strategy also sets up a specific sub-indicator regarding the share of transport fuels from renewable sources; the target set here is 10 percent by 2020. In this area, all of the Baltic States are well off their target, with Estonia scoring the lowest rating of any EU member state: just 0.2 percent of its energy used for transport in 2013 came from renewable sources. Latvia and Lithuania used 3.1 percent and 4.6 percent respectively. Only one member state has so far met its 2020 target so far: Sweden, which uses 16.7 percent renewable fuel in transport. Most EU member states are around half-way to their 2020 objective.