As part of a package of climate policies, the European Commission (EC) proposed an overhaul of EU renewable energy rules, which decide how quickly the bloc must increase the use of sources such as wind, solar and biomass energy produced from burning wood pellets or chips. The aim is to implement legally-binding targets to reduce net EU emissions by 55 % by 2030, from 1990 levels, and eliminate them by 2050.
The European Union must increase the amount of renewable energy it uses and cut energy consumption by 2030 under the proposals of the EC to help meet a more ambitious goal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
To help meet the 2050 goal, the EC has set a more ambitious interim target for the EU to raise the share of renewable energy to 40 % of final consumption by 2030, up from roughly 20 % in 2019. That replaces a previous target for a 32 % renewables target by 2030, which the EC estimates suggest the bloc was on track to meet.
The EC also proposed tightening rules that determine whether wood-burning energy can be classed as renewable and count towards green goals. It requires biomass-fuelled power and heat plants with a capacity of 5 MW or above to meet sustainability criteria, and provide substantial emissions cuts compared with burning fossil fuels. Biomass plants with a capacity below 20 MW are currently exempt from those requirements.
