Brussels – The EU remains far from its 42.5 per cent target for renewables in the energy mix by 2030, Eurostat data show. According to the European Union’s Statistical Office, the share of energy from renewable sources in gross final energy consumption in the EU reached 26.2 per cent in 2025, up 1 percentage point from 2024. At this point, achieving the target would require an annual average increase of 3.3 percentage points. Italy is below the European average in the use of renewable sources: Italy falls short of 20 per cent, standing at 19.4 percentage points of energy derived from green sources.
The European country that has done its homework best is Sweden, which generates 65.4 per cent of its energy from clean sources. The main sources of Sweden’s green energy are solid biomass, hydro, and wind. Sweden has a lead of no less than 11.4 percentage points over the runner-up, Finland, which accounts for 53.0 per cent of renewable energy consumption, relying on solid biomass, wind, and hydro, ahead of Denmark with 48.2 per cent, whose renewable energy comes mainly from solid biomass, wind, and biogas. The lowest shares of renewable energy were recorded in Belgium (14.9 per cent), Slovakia (16.3 per cent), and Ireland (17.2 per cent).
When it came to gross electricity consumption in the EU, renewable energy sources accounted for 49.9 per cent in 2025, representing a 2.4 percentage point increase from 2024 and a rise of 34.0 percentage points from 2004. In this area too, Italy could do better, as it once again falls below the European average, with renewables accounting for 40.7 per cent of its electricity consumption.
Austria (90.8 per cent), Sweden (89.2 per cent), and Denmark (77.7 per cent) significantly raise the European average, achieving very high levels of renewable energy. Portugal (65.6 per cent), Greece (60.9 per cent), and Spain (60.7 per cent) are also performing well, having recorded renewable energy shares of over 60 per cent. By contrast, Malta (11.2 per cent), the Czech Republic (19.2 per cent), and Luxembourg (23.3 per cent) are lagging.
The use of renewable energy sources for heating and cooling has continued to rise in the EU, with their share reaching 27.4 per cent in 2025, the highest figure since the time series began in 2004 (11.7 per cent). This share increased by 0.7 percentage points compared with 2024 (26.7 per cent), slightly below the average annual increase from 2004 to 2025 (0.75 percentage points).
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
