Eurostat, statistical office of the European Union

E2: Environmental statistics and accounts; sustainable development

e-mail contact: ESTAT-SDI-EU2020-INDICATORS@ec.europa.eu

This indicator is part of the indicator sets:

a) EU Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicator set where it is used to monitor progress towards SDG 7 on affordable and clean energy, SDG 12 on ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns and SDG 13 on climate action. 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 12 envisions sustainable consumption and production, which uses resources efficiently, reduces global food and other waste, disposes safely toxic waste and pollutants. SDG 13 aims to implement the commitment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and operationalise the Green Climate Fund.

b) EU 2020 strategy indicators where it is used to monitor progress towards the EU's objective for climate and energy policy 'Increasing the share of renewable energy in gross final energy consumption to 20 %'.

Furthermore, indicator is part of the impact indicators for Strategic plan 2016-2020 referring to the 10 Commission priorities, and is included in the set for the EU's framework Strategy for a Resilient Energy Union. It can be considered as identical to global SDG indicator 7.2.1 "Renewable energy share in the total final energy consumption".

The Europe 2020 strategy set a target of increasing the share of renewable energies in gross final energy consumption to 20 % by 2020. By 2030, the share should further increase to at least a 27% according to the 2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework.The Energy Union strategy highlights renewable energies as part of the required efforts for the decarbonisation of the energy system. EU Cohesion Policy (2014-2020) invests EUR 29 billion in sustainable energy, including energy efficiency, renewable energy, smart energy infrastructure and low-carbon research and innovation.

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.

a) % by sectors

b) %

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.

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 the United Kingdom, Iceland, Norway, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Turkey.

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

a) Eurostat's annual monitoring report on Sustainable development in the EU (progress towards SDGs in the EU context).

b) Eurostat's annual monitoring report on the Europe 2020 strategy 'Smarter greener, more inclusive? - Indicators to support the Europe 2020 strategy'.

See tables:

a) sdg_07_40

b) t2020_31

Eurostat dedicated section on:

a) SDGs: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/sdi/overview

b) EU 2020 strategy: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/europe-2020-indicators/europe-2020-strategy/overview

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