Eurostat, statistical office of the European Union

E2: Environmental statistics and accounts; sustainable development

e-mail contact: ESTAT-SDG-MONITORING@ec.europa.eu

The indicator is part of the EU Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicator set. It is used to monitor progress towards SDG 7 on affordable and clean energy and SDG 13 on climate action; which are embedded in the European Commission’s Priorities under the 'European Green Deal'.

SDG 7 calls for ensuring universal access to modern energy services, improving energy efficiency and increasing the share of renewable energy. To accelerate the transition to an affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy system, countries need to facilitate access to clean energy research, promote investment in energy infrastructure and clean energy technology. SDG 13 seeks to implement the commitment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change for achieving a climate neutral world by mid-century to limit global warming to well below 2°C and aiming at 1.5°C (compared to pre-industrial times). It also aims to strengthen countries’ resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related natural hazards and the resulting disasters.

The indicator can be considered as identical to global SDG indicator 7.2.1 "Renewable energy share in the total final energy consumption".

The EU is implementing an interconnected set of measures "Fit for 55" to reach the new climate targets for 2030 and has followed a new strategic plan REPowerEU to reduce the EU dependency on energy imports. The European Green Deal envisages the decarbonisation of Europe’s energy systems in order to reach climate neutrality by 2050. For this purpose, the EU will turn towards a fully integrated, interconnected and digitalised renewable energy system, while at the same time ensuring security of supply at affordable prices. Moreover, EU cohesion policy funds (2021–2027) including the ‘Next Generation EU’ recovery plan provide funding for investments in renewable energies. The revised Renewable energy Directives set an ambitious EU target to be reached by 2030.

The indicator measures the share of renewable energy consumption in gross final energy consumption according to the Renewable Energy Directive. The gross final energy consumption is the energy used by end-consumers (final energy consumption) plus grid losses and self-consumption of power plants.

% by sectors

Calendar year.

The indicator is produced according to the high-level quality standards of European Statistics. Details on accuracy can be found in the metadata of the source datasets (see link to related metadata).

ESS

Data source: European Statistical System (ESS).

Data provider: Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, based on data reported by the countries.

Every year

Indicator is updated annually. Complete and updated ESS data release information can be accessed via Eurostat release calendar.

T+2 years

New data points are disseminated within two years after the reference year.

All EU MS

Data are presented for all EU Member States plus  Iceland, Norway, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzogovina and Kosovo^(*).

_{(*)   This designation is without prejudice to positions on status and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.}

All EU MS

Data are comparable between all EU Member States respectively other presented countries.

> 10 years

Presented time series (including EU aggregates) starts in year 2004.

> 4 data points

Length of comparable time series without methodological break is longer than 4 data points.

Analysis of the indicator is presented in Eurostat's annual monitoring report on Sustainable development in the EU (progress towards SDGs in the EU context).

See tables sdg_07_40

Eurostat dedicated section on SDGs: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/sdi/overview

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