In 2013, the share of energy from renewable sources in gross final consumption of energy reached 15.0% in the European Union (EU), compared with 8.3% in 2004, the first year for which the data is available.

These figures come from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

The share of renewables in gross final consumption of energy is one of the headline indicators of the Europe 2020 strategy. The target to be reached by 2020 for the EU is a share of 20% energy from renewable sources in gross final consumption of energy. Each EU Member State has its own Europe 2020 target. The national targets⁵ take into account the Member States' different starting points, renewable energy potential and economic performance.

Highest share of renewables in Sweden, lowest in Luxembourg

Since 2004, the share of renewable sources in gross final consumption of energy grew significantly in all Member States, with thirteen Member States having at least doubled their share of renewables over the last 10 years.

With 52.1%, Sweden had by far in 2013 the highest share of energy from renewable sources in its gross final consumption of energy, ahead of Latvia (37.1%), Finland (36.8%) and Austria (32.6%). In contrast, the lowest proportions of renewables were found in Luxembourg (3.6%), Malta (3.8%), the Netherlands (4.5%) and the United Kingdom (5.1%).

Bulgaria, Estonia and Sweden reached their goal

Three out of the 28 EU Member States have already reached the level required to meet their national 2020 targets: Bulgaria, Estonia and Sweden. Moreover, Lithuania, Romania and Italy are less than 0.5 percentage points from their 2020 targets. At the opposite end of the scale, the United Kingdom (9.9 percentage points from reaching its national 2020 objective), the Netherlands (9.5 pp), France (8.8 pp) and Ireland (8.2 pp) are the furthest away from their target.