11 EU Member states have already achieved their 2020 targets on renewable energy
According to Eurostat findings published earlier today, the share of energy from renewable sources in gross final consumption of energy for 2016 reached 17% in the European Union.
That's double the share found back in 2004 (8.5%), the first year for which such data was available. The EU's target for 2020 is to push that number up to 20%, and to have it reach at least 27% by 2030.
Since 2004, the share of renewable sources has grown significantly in all Member States. Since 2015, it increased in 15 of the 28 states. Sweden leads the fray by a mile, with more than half (53.8%) of its energy coming from renewable sources in 2016. Finland (38.7%), Latvia (37.2%), Austria (33.5%) and Denmark (32.2%) followed suite.
At the opposite end of the scale, however, lie countries like Belgium, Luxembourg, The Netherlands... and Malta. The latter is currently sitting at 6%.
