Energy Community meets 2020 headline target for energy efficiency, makes progress on renewables

The Energy Community has achieved the 2020 headline target for energy efficiency set by the 2012 Energy Efficiency Directive. With respect to renewables, three Contracting Parties - Albania, Moldova and Montenegro - have overachieved their national 2020 targets under the 2009 Renewables Directive, while the remaining Parties came close.

Director Lorkowski said: “Without belittling the scale of the challenges ahead, the Energy Community having met the 2020 energy efficiency target is a notable achievement. While not all Contracting Parties were able to reach the renewables target at the end of 2020, it is encouraging to see that wind and solar technologies are starting to make a breakthrough in a coal-dominated power mix.”

On behalf of the Energy Community Presidency in Office, the Minister of Energy of Ukraine, German Galushchenko, said “2020 targets set under the Energy Community process gave an important impetus to the uptake of renewables and energy efficiency measures in Ukraine and all other Contracting Parties. For these two pillars of the energy transition to gain ground beyond 2020, ambitious targets for 2030 are needed. The Ministerial Council’s adoption of strong targets for renewables, energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reduction for 2030 is a major priority of our presidency.”

According to data released by Eurostat, the combined final energy consumption of all Contracting Parties is well below the maximum set by Directive 2012/27/EU. Seven Contracting Parties¹ have kept their energy consumption below their (indicative) national energy efficiency target for 2020. The majority of the energy efficiency measures were implemented in the manufacturing and building sectors.

With respect to the share of energy from renewables in final energy consumption, Albania, Moldova and Montenegro have overachieved their national 2020 targets set by Directive 2009/28/EC. The remaining Contracting Parties² can still catch up as the 2020 renewables targets were prolonged until the end of 2021 by the last Ministerial Council. There is no 2020 headline renewables target for the Energy Community as a whole. 

¹ 2020 data on energy efficiency is not yet available for Bosnia and Herzegovina, while Georgia does not have a target due to its later accession to the Energy Community.
² 2020 data on renewables is not yet available for Bosnia and Herzegovina, while Georgia does not have a target due to its later accession to the Energy Community.