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State of the Energy Union Report 2024 shows EU progress

Kadri Simson, Commissioner for Energy

9-12 minutes

Today, the Commission has published the State of the Energy Union Report 2024 which describes how the EU has managed unprecedented challenges in the energy policy landscape during this Commission's mandate, equipping the EU with a regulatory framework for pursuing the clean energy transition and laying the foundations for renewed economic growth and competitiveness.

Crucially, over the past years, the EU has managed to withstand critical risks to its security of energy supply, regain control over the energy market and prices, and accelerate the transition towards climate neutrality:

• Renewable energy generation is breaking new capacity records. In the first half of 2024, half of the EU's electricity generation came from renewable sources.
• The share of Russian gas in EU imports dropped from 45% in 2021 to 18% by June 2024, while imports from trusted partners like Norway and the US have increased.
• We reduced gas demand between August 2022 and May 2024 by 138 billion cubic meters.
• The EU reached its 90% winter gas storage target on 19 August 2024, well ahead of the 1 November deadline.
• Energy prices are morestable and remain significantly below the peak levels of the energy crisis of 2022.
• The EU's greenhouse gas emissions fell by 32.5% from 1990 to 2022, while the EU economy has grown by around 67% in the same period.
• At international level, the EU led the global initiative to triple renewable energy capacity and double energy efficiency improvements as part of the transition away from fossil fuels, which was endorsed by all Parties at COP28 in Dubai.

Significant progress has been made on renewable energy. Wind power overtook gas to become the EU's second largest source of electricity behind nuclear, and by the first half of 2024 renewables generated 50% of electricity in the EU. In 2022 the EU's primary energy consumption renewed its downward trend, falling by 4.1%. Nevertheless, energy efficiency efforts will need to be stepped up further for the EU to meet the 11.7% final energy consumption reduction target by 2030. Further improvement is needed, not least in the electrification of heating equipment across the board and the rate of renovation of buildings. Strengthened efforts are needed to address highenergy prices. This is key to improve the competitiveness of EU industry, and to accelerate investments in Europe's integrated infrastructure networks, which are essential for the electrification of the European economy.