(04 November 2015) – On the occasion of the publication of the 2015 Energy, transport and environment statistical book and with regard to the forthcoming COP21 in Paris, Eurostat publishes a small selection of data related to climate change.
These data show that while primary consumption of energy stood in 2013 at its early 1990s level, renewables have increased their share in final energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions decreased over the same time period.
Greenhouse gas emissions have more than halved in Latvia (-57.1%), Lithuania (-55.6%), Estonia (-52.6%) and Romania (-52.0%), followed by Bulgaria (-44.1%), Slovakia (-41.4%), Hungary (-36.3%) and the Czech Republic (-32.7%). In contrast, increases were registered in Malta (+56.9%), Cyprus (+47.7%), Spain (+22.5%), Portugal (+14.9%), Ireland (+7.0%), Greece (+5.7%), Austria (+4.0%) and Slovenia (+2.6%).
Compared with 2005, all EU Member States have seen their primary energy consumption in 2013 fall, except Estonia and Poland. The largest reductions were registered in Lithuania (-27.9%), Greece (-22.6%) and Malta (-20.0%), followed by Hungary (-17.3%), Spain (-16.4%), Romania (-15.8%), Portugal (-14.5%), Italy (-14.1%), Bulgaria (-13.8%), the United Kingdom (-12.7%) and Cyprus (-12.0%). Twenty EU Member States have already reached in 2013 the level required to meet their national 2020 targets, while Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden and the United Kingdom registered primary energy consumption still above their Europe 2020 targets.
With 52.1%, 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%), Finland (36.8%) and Austria (32.6%). In contrast, the lowest proportions of renewables were found in Luxembourg (3.6%), Malta (3.8%), the Netherlands (4.5%) and the United Kingdom (5.1%).