The European Union had set a binding target of 20% energy consumption from renewable sources by the year 2020. They are also expected to have at least 10% of their transport fuels sourced from renewable energy sources by the end of the year 2020.
However, as of now, France is deemed lagging in its efforts to generate 23% of its energy from renewable sources, which it set as its national target. It was able to generate only 16.3% of its energy from renewables in 2017 and has increased the figures only by 0.5 percentage points every year since then.
The Netherlands, too, is trailing the rest of Europe. Its national target is 14% by 2020, but the country has managed to source only 6.6% of its energy from renewables.
Luxembourg generated only 6.4% of its energy from renewables, while its target for 2020 is 11%. Britain, Poland, and Ireland are other countries to make it to the list of EU countries that trailing in their efforts to generate energy from renewables.
These countries need to make huge efforts to boost their dependency on renewables, or they would jeopardize the EU target of sourcing 32% of energy from renewables by 2030. The progress has slowed down since 2014 due to countries making efforts towards making energy more affordable for consumers.
The situation, however, isn’t as grim as it may seem. Eleven countries on the block have already achieved their 2020 targets. Sweden, which set its national target at 54.5%, has successfully managed to source the targeted percentage of energy from renewables. Collectively, the share of renewable energy in the European Union has exceeded 17.5%, which only a few points short of its target of 20%.
