50% of electricity in Europe from renewables by 2030

15/09/2015

     Europe will likely get more than half of its electricity from renewable sources by the end of the next decade if EU countries meet their climate pledges, according to a draft commission paper.      The EU has set itself a goal of cutting emissions 40% on 1990 levels by 2030, and an aspiration for a 27% share for renewables across Europe’s full energy mix, which includes sectors such as transport, agriculture and buildings that do not necessarily rely on electricity. Around a quarter of Europe's electricity currently comes from renewable sources.   Renewable energy to grow from current levels of providing around a quarter of Europe’s energy to supplying half        Oliver Joy, a spokesman for the European Wind Energy Association welcomed the draft text but noted the 27% goal for 2030 was non-binding, and some countries were looking likely to even miss an earlier goal, for 2020, that is binding.       “Even with a binding provision, we are seeing the Netherlands, UK and France potentially missing their 2020 target to source a fifth of energy provision from renewables.”      Joy called for the commission to deliver a governance system for renewables that prevented slacker states from hiding behind the more fast-moving ones.   Nguyên Hằng