Three EU countries bump up renewable energy goal for 2030

(EurActiv, 24 Sep 2019) France, Greece and Bulgaria have pledged to update their national targets for renewable energy and bump up the share of wind, solar and other renewables to 33%, 35% and 27% of their energy consumption respectively by 2030.

The announcements were made on Tuesday (24 September) as part of a public debate among EU energy ministers on the National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) submitted by the bloc’s 28 member states.

“France has decided to raise its objective from 32 to 33%,” said Fabrice Dubreuil, the deputy permanent representative of France to the European Union, who represented his country at today’s ministerial meeting in Brussels.

Other countries announced similar pledges, with Greece and Bulgaria saying they will raise their own renewables target from 31 to 35% and from 25 to 27%, respectively. Greece had already surprised observers at the UN climate summit in New York on Monday by announcing plans to phase out coal entirely by 2028.

In introductory remarks to Tuesday’s meeting, the EU Commission vice-president in charge of the energy union, Maroš Šefčovič, reminded national governments about the “ambition gap” in meeting Europe’s objectives on renewables and energy efficiency.

According to the European Commission, renewable energy deployment is on track to fall short by 1.6 percentage points against a 32% target for 2030. And energy efficiency measures risk leaving a gap of 6.2 percentage points versus a 32.5% benchmark agreed last year.

“Where I see the bigger challenge is energy efficiency,” Šefčovič said. “We’re doing the most but we know we can do better.”

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EurActiv, 24 Sep 2019: Three EU countries bump up renewable energy goal for 2030