EU on track to cut carbon emissions 54% by 2030 – EC

The EU is on track to cut its net greenhouse gas emissions by 54% from 1990 levels by 2030, just short of its legally binding 55% target, the European Commission said on Wednesday.

This is based on the bloc’s members fully implementing their existing and proposed measures as well as EU policies, the EC said after assessing their updated national energy and climate plans.

These plans are required by EU law to show how individual countries will contribute to the bloc’s 2030 targets for cutting emissions, boosting renewables and improving energy efficiency.

The EC found that the bloc was on track to source 41% of its energy from renewables, just below its binding target of at least 42.5%.

The EU was further away from meeting its energy efficiency goals, however. It was on track to cut its final energy use by 8.1% by 2030, more than 3 percentage points below its binding 11.7% target.

The updated final plans are more ambitious than the drafts assessed by the EC in December 2023, which would have cut emissions by 51%, boosted renewables to 39%, and cut energy use by 5.8%.

Belgium, Estonia and Poland have still not submitted their final updated plans, which were due by June 2024. The EC’s latest assessment included only their headline numbers for contributing to the bloc’s targets.

The EC was still assessing Slovakia’s final updated plan, submitted in April this year.

Closing the gap

The EC said the 42.5% renewables target could be achieved if EU countries fully delivered on their more ambitious projections.

Meanwhile, the EU’s upcoming electrification action plan would be “at the core of our energy efficiency efforts,” EU energy commissioner Dan Jorgensen said today.

“It is one of the fastest ways of becoming more efficient,” he added, without saying when he would present the plan.

The EC was also exploring how to set up an EU-wide market for energy savings certificates to boost energy efficiency.

The push to increase renewables and energy efficiency is part of the EU’s efforts to increase its energy security, reduce imports of fossil fuels and achieve a net-zero emission economy by 2050.

The EC has said it will propose before the summer a higher carbon emissions cut for 2040 to help the EU to stay on track for the 2050 target.

source: montel news