According to the European Energy Agency (EEA), the European Union's (EU) progress towards improving energy efficiency and increasing the use of renewable energies is slowing down and putting the ability to meet its 2020 and 2030 objectives at risk. Good progress towards the energy efficiency targets was made between 2005 and 2014 but the pace has slowed in recent years due to the rising energy consumption, particularly in the transport sector.
The EU remains on track to meet its target of a renewables share of 20 % by 2020 but the EEA's preliminary data shows that the uptake of renewable energy in the EU gross final energy consumption stood at 17.4% only in 2017, up from 17% in 2016. Besides, there has been insufficient progress towards the 10% renewable energy use target in the transportation sector. The preliminary data showed that only 20 member states were on track to reach their individual targets on renewables by 2020, a decline from 2016 when 25 countries were in line.
The energy efficiency targets for 2020 and 2030 are set at 20% and 32.5% below the level in primary and final energy consumption projected for 2020 and 2030 in the European Commission's 2007 Energy Baseline Scenario. According to EEA’s preliminary estimates for 2017, both primary energy consumption and final energy consumption now lie above the indicative trajectory towards 2020 and 13 Member States (up from 10 in 2016) are expected to have increased their primary energy consumption to levels above the trajectories to their 2020 targets.
The EEA estimates that the EU member states will require to implement relevant policies and measures to keep energy consumption in check on the path to these objectives.