EU ECFIN: Energy consumption down by 8% between 2006 and 2012 in the EU28 (17 February 2014)

Over the last two decades, gross inland energy consumption in the EU28, which stood at 1 670 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe) in 1990, rose to a peak of 1 830 Mtoe in 2006 and then decreased to 1 680 Mtoe in 2012. Between 2006 and 2012, gross inland energy consumption in the EU28 has fallen by 8%.The energy dependence rate, which shows the extent to which a country is dependent on energy imports, was 53% in the EU28 in 2012.

Between 2006 and 2012, energy consumption fell in twenty four Member States and increased only in Estonia (+11.6%), the Netherlands (+2.9%),  Poland  (+0.8%)  and  Sweden (+0.4%). The  largest  relative  falls  were recorded in Lithuania (-17.0%), Portugal (-15.2), Greece (-14.4%) and Hungary (-14.2%). 

An environmentally and socially sustainable exit from the current financial crisis, in order to preserve the natural capital that underpins successful economic activity; is urgently needed, stresses WWF ahead of the Informal Meeting of the European Council gathering in Brussels on 23 May.

In a draft law rushed through a 7-day public consultation process, the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change proposes the declassification from protection status of over 15% of Greek territory. The aim of this act is to allow for the development of touristic and industrial uses on lands currently protected under the national Forest Code, on the basis of article 24 of the Greek Constitution. Through the proposed amendments, the State also relinquishes its right to collect the financial penalties imposed on a number of currently illegal uses in the declassified lands. Furthermore, new development uses are added to forests and other lands remaining under the Forest Code.

A vision and roadmap for the development of a living and sustainable economy in Greece was presented by WWF Greece on 9 October 2013 in Athens. This proposal, which was reviewed by the Athens office of the Boston Consulting Group, opens a vital dialogue that never occurred in Greece, about development and the socioeconomic future of the country.

A recent Flash Eurobarometer survey on the “Attitudes towards biodiversity” may offer a clear message that the majority of EU citizens do not favour measures that undermine the conservation of Europe’s natural treasury.

According to the Flash Eurobarometer 379, which was published earlier in November, “[r]oughly  three  quarters  of  Europeans  totally  agree  that  the  EU  should  better  inform citizens about the importance of biodiversity (72%).  Approximately  two  thirds  of  Europeans  totally  agree  that  the  EU  should  increase  the areas where nature is protected in Europe (65%).