Energy Community meets 2020 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.

As for renewables, three contracting parties – Albania, Moldova and Montenegro – have overachieved their national 2020 targets under the 2009 Renewables Directive, while the remaining ones came close, the Energy Community Secretariat noted.

“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,” the secretariat’s Director Artur Lorkowski said.

The data on energy efficiency and renewables for 2020 is not yet available for Bosnia and Herzegovina

According to data released by Eurostat, the combined final energy consumption of all contracting parties is well below the maximum set by the Energy Efficiency Directive 2012/27/EU.

Seven contracting parties 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.

Albania, Moldova and Montenegro have overachieved their national 2020 targets set by the Renewables Directive

On behalf of the international organization’s presidency in office, 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 his country 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,” he asserted.

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 the Renewables Directive 2009/28/EC. The remaining contracting parties could have caught up to them, 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.

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