DG Energy Newsletter

Responsible for 30% of today’s global warming – methane (CH4) is second only to carbon dioxide (CO2) in terms of its contribution to climate change. As part of the European Green Deal, the EU is addressing the need for reducing energy-related methane emissions.

The Joint Declaration on energy efficiency financing and the European Energy Efficiency Financing Coalition (Coalition) underlines the importance of mobilising private investment for energy efficiency and of creating a long-term, viable funding framework for energy efficiency investments.

In the margins of the Energy Council held on 19 December, the vast majority of Member States and many leading wind industry representatives signed up to a European Wind Charter, with more expected to follow.

17 small-scale innovative clean tech projects will receive over €65 million in project support under the EU Innovation Fund. These funds will help companies in Europe to bring breakthrough technologies to the market in energy-intensive industries, renewable energy, and energy storage.

The draft updated NECPs bring us closer to meeting the EU's 2030 targets and to implementing recently agreed legislation. However, there is a clear need for extra efforts, also in light of the COP28 outcome and the global call to accelerate action this decade.

On 19 December, the Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the energy ministers of France, Portugal and Spain on cross-border energy interconnections in South-West Europe.

On 19 December, the European Commission and representatives of the governments of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland signed a Political Declaration confirming their commitment to proceed at full speed to connect the electricity networks of the three Baltic States with continental Europe, via Poland, by February 2025. This is almost a year earlier than the previous deadline of end of 2025.

The €2.17 billion will contribute to modernise the energy systems in nine Member States through 19 selected projects. These investments will help lower-income EU countries to meet their 2030 climate and energy targets and will reduce greenhouse gas emissions in energy, industry and transport, and improve energy efficiency.

In 2022, primary energy consumption in the EU reached 1 257 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe), a 4.1% decrease compared with 2021. Data show that in 2022 the EU moved closer to the 2030 target of 992.5 Mtoe with the gap narrowing to 26.7%.

The EU imported €35.4 billion worth of energy products amounting to a total of 65 million tonnes. Compared with the same quarter of 2022, imports decreased both in value (-49.1%) and in net mass (-11.3%).

In 2022, 13 EU countries with nuclear electricity production generated 609 255 gigawatt hours (GWh) of nuclear electricity (-16.7% compared with 2021). This is the lowest level registered in the period from 1990, the first year for which comparable data are available for all EU countries.

The share of renewable sources in gross final energy consumption at the EU level reached 23.0% in 2022. Compared with 2021, this represents an increase of 1.1 percentage points.

In 2022, we installed 56 GW of wind and solar capacity in the EU, which represents a 16% increase from 2021 (353 GW). New installed capacity for 2023 is estimated at around 73 GW, which is a 18% increase on 2022 figures. The total renewable energy capacity in the EU is close to 480 GW and contributes to saving an estimated 13 bcm of natural gas.