Policy

In March 2007 EU leaders committed the EU to cutting its greenhouse gas emissions by 30% of 1990 levels by 2020 provided other developed countries commit to making comparable reductions under a global agreement.

To start transforming Europe into a highly energy-efficient, low-carbon economy, they committed to cutting emissions by at least 20% independently of what other countries decide to do.

To underpin these commitments, EU leaders set three key targets to be met by 2020:

• a 20% reduction in energy consumption compared with projected trends
• an increase to 20% in renewable energies' share of total energy consumption
• and an increase to 10% in the share of petrol and diesel consumption from sustainably-produced biofuels