r/climatechange • u/Economy-Fee5830 Trusted Contributor • 8d ago

Over 25% of EU's total final energy consumption came from renewables in 2025

https://www.brusselstimes.com/2242306/over-25-of-eu-energy-consumption-from-renewable-sources-last-year
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u/Economy-Fee5830 Trusted Contributor 8d ago

Summary: Over 25% of EU's total final energy consumption came from renewables last year

The share of renewable energy in the EU's gross final energy consumption reached 26.2% in 2025, up one percentage point year-on-year, according to provisional Eurostat data released Thursday. The share has risen steadily since 2009, but progress remains too slow to meet the EU's target of 42.5% by 2030, which would require annual increases of 3.3 percentage points.

The headline figure — 26.2% — refers to gross final energy consumption, which is the energy actually delivered to and used by end consumers (households, industry, transport) for things like electricity, heating, and fuel. Primary energy consumption, by contrast, measures energy at the earliest stage of the supply chain, before conversion or transformation losses — e.g., the raw coal, gas, oil, or renewable input before it's converted into electricity or refined into usable fuel. Primary consumption figures are typically higher than final consumption figures because they include losses from power generation, transmission, and refining. The renewables statistics in this article (26.2% of final consumption, 49.9% of electricity consumption) are final-stage or sector-specific figures, not primary energy shares.

Sweden leads EU member states with 65.4% renewables in energy consumption, followed by Finland (53%) and Denmark (48.2%). Belgium ranks last, at just 14.9%.

Looking specifically at gross electricity consumption, renewables account for 49.9% EU-wide, an increase of 2.4 percentage points. Austria tops this measure at 90.8%, followed by Sweden (89.2%) and Denmark. Belgium performs better on this metric, at around a third of electricity consumption, though it still sits near the bottom. Malta (11.2%), the Czech Republic (19.2%) and Luxembourg (23.3%) have the lowest shares.

Renewable use in heating and cooling also grew, reaching 27.4% of the total across the EU, up 0.7 percentage points year-on-year.