EU flags. File photoBRUSSELS, May 18.The EU plans to increase the share of renewable energy to 45% by 2030 as part of the RepowerEU energy sector reform plan to eliminate dependence on Russian energy resources, said the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, who presented the relevant proposals on Wednesday. Previously, the target for renewable energy by 2030 was 40%. «One of the stages of abandoning Russian energy resources should be increasing the share of renewable energy … If earlier the goal was 40%, now we will raise it to 45%,» she said. For this, it is planned, in particular, to gradually introduce the installation renewable energy sources for the residential sector and public buildings between 2025 and 2029. It is also proposed to significantly facilitate and speed up the obtaining of permits for renewable energy generation installations. According to Eurostat, in 2019, the share of energy from renewable sources in the total volume of its consumption in the EU was 19.7%. At the same time, the EU goal for 2020 was a share of 20%.The EU goes to the dustbin of history The European Commission has previously proposed to make the EU climate neutral by the middle of the century — when the volume of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere is equal to the volume of their capture. This will require changes in the structure of energy production and consumption in the countries of the union and hundreds of billions of euros of investment. The 2030 target is an intermediate step in this strategy. Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson said earlier that the EU imports 58% of the energy it needs. So far, the most important sources of energy for the union are fossil oil and gas, and Russia is their major supplier. At the same time, the European Commission has previously advocated a more active use of energy from renewable sources, reducing dependence on imports and fossil fuels. The European Commission also proposed setting a goal to increase energy efficiency and reduce energy consumption in the EU by 2030 by 13% compared to the current target in 9%, added Ursula von der Leyen. «One of the phases of the plan should be to save energy… We are setting a new ambitious goal to break free from dependence on Russian fossil energy resources as soon as possible… We want to raise the EU's target for energy efficiency by 2030 from 9 % to 13%,» she said.
