EU faces belt-tightening, energy savings ahead

The Council of the European Union has approved the recast Energy Efficiency Directive, which sets a binding target for energy savings. The European Union as a whole must reduce final energy consumption by 11.7 % by 2030 compared with projections prepared in 2020. Targets for year-on-year energy savings and the public sector have also been raised. 

The European Union has approved another major part of the European Green Deal, whose intermediate goal is to achieve a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of at least 55 % by 2030. This is also to be achieved through energy savings.

The new energy efficiency targets are set out in the recast Energy Efficiency Directive (2012/27/EU). The main change is a new binding target to reduce final energy consumption by 11.7 %. This target is binding for the European Union as a whole, while each country will have its own target for reducing final energy consumption.