The European Union is on its way to meet the 2020 final energy
consumption target if it keeps steady on the same path, a European
Commission energy spokeswoman said.
“The EU28 is also on a good pathway to achieve the primary energy
consumption target 2020 if the current efforts are maintained,”
Anna-Kaisa Itkonen told New Europe on September 7.
A report by the EU’s science arm, the Joint Research Centre (JRC),
supports the European “Commission’s work as we continue to assess the
energy efficiency progress,” Itkoken said.
Last month, ESTAT published its findings, concluding that the final
energy consumption is currently below the 2020 target, the spokeswoman
said, adding that an official Commission statement and updated analysis
of the progress towards the 2020 energy efficiency targets will be
published by the European Commission in its 2016 Energy Efficiency
Progress Report/State of the Energy Union report.
According to the JRC report, a steady decline in energy consumption
in the period from 2000 to 2014 has lowered EU final energy consumption
from 1133 Mtoe in 2000 to 1061 Mtoe in 2014. “This puts the consumption
below the indicative targets for 2020, set to 1,086 Mtoe by the European
Energy Efficiency Directive. The saving achieved is equivalent to the
whole energy consumption of Finland in 2014,” JRC said.
The report presents the status of energy consumption trends in the
four main energy-consuming sectors in the EU: residential, tertiary
(services), transport and industry over the period 2000-2014. The
breakdown into sectors shows that the largest decline of final energy
consumption has been registered in the industry (-17.62%), followed by a
remarkable decrease (-9.52%) in the residential sector, while the
transport sector has seen a slight increase (+2.21%) surpassed by
services which have marked an energy consumption hike of 16.48%. The
increasing trend in the tertiary sector is expected to continue as
Europe moves to a more service-based industry.
According to the report, transport accounted for 33.22% of total
final energy consumption in 2014, confirming transportation as the main
energy consumer. Its final energy consumption in the EU-28 has grown
from 344.9 Mtoe to 352.5 Mtoe. A decreasing trend, registered from 2007
to 2013, has been reversed in 2014 with a 1.4% growth due to recovering
economies.
Final energy consumption in European industries has been falling
since 2008. Reduced production of iron and steel – the highest energy
consumption manufacturing subsector – has led to a 24% drop of the final
energy consumption during the period 2000-2014. The financial and
economic crisis has further affected the production, the JRC report
read.
https://www.neweurope.eu/article/eu-meet-2020-final-energy-consumption-target/