EREF Press Release
Europe needs a 45% renewables target to ensure its leadership in renewable energy
Brussels, 21 June 2017
Today, the leading energy consultancies Ecofys, a Navigant company, and TU Wien published their report “National benchmarks for a more ambitious EU 2030 renewables target”. The study was commissioned by EREF, the European Federation of Renewable Energies Producers.
The report derives national target benchmarks for a more ambitious EU renewables target and analyses the positive effect of increased energy efficiency on the effort required to meet the 2030 renewables target.
The report states the following key findings:
- Higher energy efficiency facilitates more ambitious renewable energy targets. An increase of the EU energy efficiency target to 40% by 2030 would help to achieve the EU renewable energy target.
- An EU renewable energy target of 27% could drastically slow down current levels of renewable energy expansion in the EU-28.
- A 35% renewables target at EU level by 2030 would be needed to maintain current net deployment increase of renewables in the EU-28 if the EU energy efficiency target is set at a 40%
- A 45% renewables target at EU level by 2030 would imply a strong increase in renewables deployment compared to 2010-2020.
The report comes at a moment when the European Parliament is preparing its report on this important issue, as part of the overall response to the Clean Energy for All Europeans package proposed by the European Commission in November 2016.
The Commission proposed to limit the EU efforts to an energy efficiency target of at least 30% and a renewables target of at least 27% at EU level by 2030. These proposals have been heavily criticized by multiple stakeholders as being “business as usual” and being too low to meet the obligations under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and to trigger the necessary investments to realize the energy transition.
EREF Director Dörte Fouquet observes: “The conclusions of this important report reinforce our view that Europe has to do more and can do more to realize the Paris Agreement.
Setting a European renewable energy target of 45 % by 2030 will be a key instrument in an effective climate change mitigation policy and will give a boost to the innovation of economy and employment. It is now up to the European Parliament to demonstrate that it takes its climate change commitments seriously”.
The full report can be obtained under the following link …:
For more information on this matter, please contact
Dr. Dörte Fouquet Dirk Hendricks
EREF Director EREF Senior Policy Advisor
doerte.fouquet@eref-europe.org dirk.hendricks@eref-europe.org