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Declining market shares of biggest EU energy companies
Share of renewables in transport decreased in 2021
In 2021, the share of renewable sources in transport reached 9.1% at EU level, a 1.2 percentage points (pp) decrease compared with 2020. This result means there is much work to be done to meet the 14% target currently set for 2030 by the EU directive on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources. According to this, in 2021, the EU was 4.9 pp below the 2030 target and 0.9 pp below the 2020 target.
Despite an increase in the use of renewable energy in transport in absolute terms compared with 2020, the decrease in the share is linked to both the increase in transport activities due to lifting of COVID-19 restrictions and to the change of methodology. Please see the methodological notes for a more detailed explanation.
Sweden led in share from renewable sources in transport
Among the EU Member States, only two outperformed the 2030 target. Sweden (30.4%) had a share around three times larger than that recorded in 25 EU Member States and more than double the 2030 target. It was followed by Finland (20.5%), which also showed a very high use of renewables in transport. Sweden’s and Finland’s high shares are explained by the significant use of compliant biofuels in their transport fuel mix.
Source dataset: nrg_ind_ren
On the other hand, the lowest shares were registered in Ireland and Greece (both 4.3%), Poland (5.7%), Latvia (6.4%) and Lithuania (6.5%).
The largest decreases from 2020 to 2021 were registered in Ireland (-5.9 pp), Hungary (-5.4 pp) and Luxembourg (-4.6 pp).
In 2021, all EU Member States, with the exception of Finland (+6.2 pp), Lithuania (+1.0 pp), Denmark (+0.8 pp), Croatia (+0.4 pp) and Malta (no change), registered a decrease in the average share of energy from renewable sources in transport compared with 2020.
For more information
- Statistics Explained article on renewable energy
- Thematic section on the short assessment of renewable energy resources (SHARES)
- Thematic section on energy statistics
- Database on energy statistics
- Shedding light on energy in the EU 2022- interactive edition
- Interactive energy visualisation tools
Methodological notes:
- Data until 2020 are calculated on the basis of Directive 2009/28/EC (RED I), while data for 2021 follow DIRECTIVE (EU) 2018/2001 of 11 December 2018 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources (RED II). Due to the change of legal basis, a break in series occurs between 2020 and 2021. Readers are encouraged to analyse the differences between both Directives (RED I and RED II), such as the change of multipliers for the use of renewable electricity in different means of transport, the energy sector and all national specificities before drawing any conclusions from the comparison of year 2021 with previous time series. The SHARES Manual provides more details on the methodology used for the calculation of the share of renewables in transport.
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