EU energy transition well underway to reach its 2020 target

The European Commission published on Wednesday the Second State of the Energy Union Report.

The report reviewed the progress made since the publication of the first State of the Energy Union Report in November 2015.

The commission said in its press release that this report showed that several trends in the EU's transition to a low-carbon economy were continued and strengthened.

As regards to final energy consumption, that is the use of energy by end users, EU has already achieved its 2020 target in 2014. The bloc consumed 1,062 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe) which was 2.2 percent below the 2020 energy consumption target of 1,086 Mtoe.

In 2015, EU greenhouse gas emissions were 22 percent below the 1990 level.

Besides, the share of renewables in 2014 reached 16 percent of the EU's gross final energy consumption, which means the renewable sector is also well underway to reach the target.

In the same year, renewables generated 27.5 percent of the EU's electricity and it is expected to climb to 50 percent by 2030, the release said.

Europe has committed itself to increasing its energy efficiency by 20 percent by 2020. Renewables and energy efficiency are critical to reaching this goal and the commission recently published Clean Energy for All Europeans package, in which it proposed to raise the EU target to 30 percent by 2030. Endit