The Renewable Energy Directive is the legal framework for the development of clean energy across all sectors of the EU economy, supporting cooperation between EU countries towards this goal.
Since the introduction of the Renewable Energy Directive (2009/28/EC), the share of renewable energy sources in EU energy consumption has increased from 12.5% in 2010 to 21.8% in 2021. Sweden had the highest share of renewables in its consumption (62.6%), ahead of Finland (43.1%) and Latvia (42.1%), as reported to Eurostat.
The EU is already a global leader on renewables when it comes to technology development and deployment. However, its competitiveness on global renewable energy markets could be further strengthened, as confirmed by a report on the EU’s global leadership in renewable energy, published in 2021.
Under the European Green Deal, renewable energy is a pillar of the clean energy transition. It comes at a low cost and is home-grown, which reduces Europe’s dependency on external suppliers. This is why the EU’s level of ambition on increasing the share of renewables in its energy mix and the measures needed to achieve this are regularly revisited.
The revised Directive
Given the need to speed up the EU’s clean energy transition, the Renewable Energy Directive EU/2018/2001 was revised in 2023.
The revised Directive EU/2023/2413 entered into force on November 20, 2023.
There will be an 18-month period to transpose most of the directive's provisions into national law, with a shorter deadline of July 2024 for some provisions related to permitting for renewables.
It sets an overall European renewable energy target of at least 42.5% binding at EU level by 2030 - but aiming for 45%.
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