European Union eu flag
Flying flag in front of the European Union's Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)

The share of energy from renewable sources in the European Union (EU) is 16 percent.

To achieve this, EU countries have committed to reaching their own national renewables targets ranging from 10 percent in Malta to 53.9 percent in Sweden.

They are also each required to have at least 10 percent of their transport fuels come from renewable sources by 2020.

All EU countries have adopted national renewable energy action plans showing what actions they intend to take to meet their renewables targets.

These plans include sectoral targets for electricity, heating, and cooling, and transport; planned policy measures; the different mix of renewables technologies they expect to employ; and the planned use of cooperation mechanisms.

These are the EU countries with the highest share of energy coming from renewables:

1. Sweden: 53.9 percent
On target to run entirely on renewables by 2040.

2. Finland: 39.3 percent
Energy produced by wind doubled from 2014 to 2015.

3. Latvia: 37.6 percent
Planning a 40 percent share of renewables by 2020.

4. Austria: 33.0 percent
Wind and photovoltaic energy generation grew by a quarter from 2014 to 2015.

5. Denmark: 30.8 percent
Has already met its 2020 target of 30 percent

The slowest countries to take up renewables are Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Belgium, and the United Kingdom.

The countries struggling the most to meet their goals are the Netherlands and France.

Diana A. N.
Diana writes about eco-trends, green living, and sustainable technologies that help us live healthy/active lifestyles. She is also a freelance fashion blogger, and an "Instagram Influencer" (@effortlesslady) in Ottawa, ON — Canada.

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1 Comment

  1. Thanks for the update Diana. Should the claim not be “20 percent of all electricity consumed”? Currently only about 18 percent of all primary energy used is in the form of electricity; the rest is fuel, which is to say fossil fuels and biomass used directly for transport, heat, and other processes.

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