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As EU Prepares to Hit Emissions Target, UK Lags Behind

  • Publish Date: Posted about 7 years ago

The European Union is well on track to hit its green energy targets for 2020, with just three member states having failed to reach their goals, including the UK, which has increased its reliance on imported energy over the past ten years.

A report has shown that plenty of positive progress has been made across Europe in order to ensure that 20pc of all final energy is coming from renewable sources by the target date of 2020. When figures were compiled for 2014, it showed that this share was already at 16pc.

The same research also found that the EU had greatly reduced the level of greenhouse gases emitted and had made good strides in moving towards a carbon-neutral economy. For the 15-year period to 2015, the region slashed its greenhouse gas emissions by 22pc whilst growing its GPD by 50pc.

This now means that Europe is one of the least polluting of the major economies, and in the G20 group it is on course to become the most efficient in terms of greenhouse gases of the economies via its new climate targets for 2030.

However, the same progress was not recorded for the UK, Poland and Denmark due to lesser fossil fuel production at home, which required an increase in imports.

The UK still has the highest prices for gas and coal in Europe, and Scandinavian countries have the lowest. Eleven of the European Union's member states are also yet to reach their 10pc energy connectivity target with other EU members and are working on developing their interconnectivity - a plan to improve energy security of supply across Europe and to integrate renewable efforts.

Energy poverty is also a key issue, with power representing 8.6pc of low-income families' expenditure.