45% of the EU’s energy consumption should come from renewable sources by 2030. That’s the outcome of an agreement reached between the Socialists and Democrats and other political groups during a vote on the Renewable Energy Directive in the European Parliament’s committee on industry, research and energy today. Besides helping to achieve climate neutrality, the S&Ds believe this agreement should increase the EU’s energy security, lower our dependence on imports from third countries and help tackle the problem of skyrocketing electricity bills.

Nicolás González Casares MEP, the S&D negotiator on the topic, said:

“Energy currently accounts for 75% of CO2 emissions in the EU and mostly comes from fossil fuels. We have to lower this figure if we want to remain true to our promises to citizens on greener and more affordable energy. We, the Socialists and Democrats, are convinced the EU should aim higher than the target the European Commission proposed and thus we increased the general objective for renewable energies from 40% to 45% as an overall percentage of energy consumption in the EU by 2030. The reform of the directive must be focused on promoting only renewable energies, as opposed to attempts to promote other types of energy. We agreed today on promoting green hydrogen and only using sustainable bioenergy. In addition, we have also raised all the renewable sectoral targets, such as for industry, transport and heating and cooling, from those set out in the Commission proposal.

“Our group is convinced that the green transition doesn’t only mean the fight against climate change but also the creation of high-quality jobs throughout our union. This is why we put a special focus in the directive on the target of 5% for innovative renewable energy technologies by 2030. The S&D Group did this guided by our conviction that the technology must go beyond just photovoltaic and wind power, and there is huge potential in the European research and development sector for this purpose.”