Europe’s renewable power installation is at record highs but the continent’s imports continue to be weighted in favour of fossil fuels, according to the EU’s State of Energy report.
The warning came despite wind and solar rising to new highs, overtaking fossil fuels in Europe’s electricity mix for the first time.
Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson said, “We have made impressive progress in the past five years, but it is the next five that are really critical to our clean energy transition, to our fulfilment of the Paris Agreement commitments, and to the prosperity of our citizens and the competitiveness of our industry.”
“We continue to import too much fossil fuels. Europe needs to rely on more domestically produced clean energy, and import less fossil fuels, to ensure competitiveness, security of supply and the EU’s energy sovereignty and economic resilience.”
She urged Member States to deliver their missing National Energy and Climate Plans. To date, way past deadline, the EU has only received 10 final plans.
“These plans are essential to turn commitments into action, and to give certainty to investors,” she added.
However green investments have reached a record level thanks also to national Recovery and Resilience Plans. By mid-June, out of the €240bn disbursed as part of National Recovery and Resilience Plans, €184bn have been allocated to energy-related reforms and investments.
The Net-Zero Industry Act and the Critical Raw Materials Act, which entered into force in 2024, will help strengthen supply chain resilience through diversified sourcing and build a strong domestic manufacturing base for Net Zero technologies.
But Simson said Europe needs a greater boost to infrastructure and grids development, to support electrification, and acknowledged ‘more work is still needed’ with REPowerEU, designed to end Russian reliance on Russian fossil fuels before 2030.
Imports of Russian gas (pipeline & LNG) dropped from a 45% share of overall EU gas imports in 2021, to 18% up to August 2024.
Norway and the US have become the EU’s largest gas suppliers, for pipeline and LNG gas, providing 34% and 18% respectively of EU gas imports in the first half of this year.
A record 12 new LNG terminals and six expansion projects of existing terminals were commissioned between 2022-2024.
