European parliamentary committee votes to boost EU renewable consumption to 45% by 2030

In Belgium, MEPs voted to raise the share of renewables in the EU’s final energy consumption to 45% by 2030, under the revision of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) -a target also backed by the European Commission under its “RepowerEU” package.

MEPs doubled the number of cross-border projects for the expansion of green electricity to two projects per member state. Member states with the highest annual electricity consumption will be obliged to adopt a third project by 2030.

The Committee also demands that member states set an indicative target for innovative renewable energy technology of at least 5% of newly installed renewable energy capacity.

MEPs also insisted on the transparency of green electricity components and the simplification of hydrogen ramp-up, including a simpler system for guaranteeing of its origin.

In the transport sector, renewables deployment should lead to a 16% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, through the use of higher shares of advanced biofuels and a more ambitious quota for renewable fuels of non-biological origin such as hydrogen.