Can do better. The European Union (EU), which is committed to achieving carbon neutrality in 2050, in accordance with the Paris climate agreement, is, for the moment, not in line with this objective. According to a Commission publication, Monday December 18, the measures already taken by the Twenty-Seven would allow them to hope for a 51% reduction in their greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, then that they had agreed to reduce them by at least 55%. In this context, insists the Commission, if they want to catch up, Europeans must “redouble your efforts” to implement the “green deal”.
Experts from the community executive have dissected the latest “national energy climate plans” that member states have prepared in order to define the path that should allow them to keep their promises. They worked on the basis of twenty-one copies, while those from Belgium, Ireland and Latvia arrived too late to be seriously analyzed and three countries – Austria, Bulgaria and Poland – did not not yet handed in theirs.
Whatever indicators we take – share of renewable energies, energy efficiency, carbon sinks, contribution of the construction, agriculture or transport sectors – the EU is doing less well than expected.
Even if the war in Ukraine and the end of access to cheap Russian gas have changed the European situation, the Twenty-Seven are still struggling to do without fossil fuels. Thus, while the renewable energy directive, which has just been revised, sets a target of 42.5% wind or solar energy in the total consumption of the Twenty-Seven by 2030, this figure, in current state of affairs, should not exceed 39.3%. Only seven countries – Denmark, Spain, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Lithuania and Luxembourg – are meeting or doing better than the targets assigned to them.
“We need firmer commitments”
In terms of energy efficiency, the result is also not satisfactory. Final energy consumption in the EU in 2030 “could reach 814.3 megatons of oil equivalent [Mtep] », estimates the Commission, when the Twenty-Seven wanted to reduce their energy consumption by 11.7% between 2020 and 2030, to 763 Mtoe. As for the building, transport or agriculture sectors, which are not affected by the carbon market, they should reduce their CO emissions by 33.8%.2 by 2030 compared to 2005, and not by 40% as expected.
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