The European Environment Agency (EEA) has recently published an important report showing that wind, solar, biomass and other renewable energy technologies continued to grow in 2013. New data shows they have been an important driving force in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Europe.
Without the deployment of renewable energy since 2005, greenhouse gas emissions in 2012 could have been 7% higher than actual emissions, according to the EEA report ‘Renewable energy in Europe – approximated recent growth and knock-on effects’.
Renewable technologies also increase energy security, the report also found. Without the additional use of renewable energy since 2005, the EU’s consumption of fossil fuels would have been about 7% higher in 2012. The most substituted fuel was coal, where consumption would have been 13% higher, while natural gas use would have been 7% higher, at a time when European gas reserves are dwindling.
Renewable energy has not been the only factor reducing Europe’s greenhouse gas emissions. Policies and measures designed to reduce emissions, improve energy efficiency and stimulate the deployment of renewable energy have all played a role. There were also other drivers for this reduction, including changing economic factors and shifts to less-polluting types of fuels.
Other findings:
- Final consumption of renewable energy increased in all Member States in 2013, according to EEA estimates. At EU level, the share of renewables increased to almost 15% by 2013, so the EU was ahead of its 12% target set by the Renewable Energy Directive. By 2020, the EU aims to generate at least 20% of its energy using renewable sources, rising to 27% by 2030.
- In Sweden, Latvia, Finland and Austria renewable energy made up more than a third of final energy consumption in 2013. At the other end of the scale, Malta, Luxembourg, Netherlands and the UK were all below 5%.
- The renewable heating and cooling market sector contributed most towards overall renewable energy in the EU in 2013. However, renewable electricity is growing faster. In contrast, the use of renewable energy sources in transport fell in 2013 in about half of the EU Member States and also at EU level.
- Coal, oil, gas and other fossil fuels still make up around three quarters of final energy consumption. Fossil fuels are the main cause of climate change, air pollution and several other environmental pressures.
- For Europe to meet ambitious decarbonisation targets, renewable energy sources are expected to increase to between 55 to 75% of final energy consumption by mid-century, according to the European Commission’s Energy Roadmap 2050.
The report is available on the EEA website.
Energy in Demand - Sustainable Energy - Rod Janssen 
Well, rather a lot of ‘spin’ in the way this is presented.
EEA reports used to be a bit more honest in their presentation/interpretation of the numbers.
The key sentence in this summary of the report comes at the end: ” … There were also other drivers for this reduction, including changing economic factors and shifts to less-polluting types of fuels.”
De-coded, what that means is that shifting from coal to gas, using a higher efficiency technology in power stations (55-60% efficient instead of 35-40% efficient), and the continuing steady shift from manufacturing to services in European economic activity has given a lot more bang for the buck in terms of reducing carbon emissions than have renewables.
Note also that biomass is quietly mentioned as part of the renewables story. Here EEA has to maintain the convenient political fiction that biomass is a zero-carbon source. And the countries with high renewables? Sweden, Finland, Latvia … high biomass countries as well as (in Sweden’s case) high traditional hydro.
Look at the EEA numbers carefully over a period of years, and it’s clear that the sun and the wind aren’t yet quite cutting the mustard in terms of making a significant contribution to GHG reduction.