BRUSSELS, March 10 (UPI) -- Eurostat, the statistics office for the European Union, said Monday member states used renewable energy to meet 14.1 percent of their demand in 2012.
Eurostat published information Monday on the amount of renewable energy used from all 28 member states. It said energy from renewable resources made up 14.1 percent of the EU energy market in 2012, the last full year for which data are available. That's compared with 8.3 percent in 2004, the first full year for which renewable energy data are available.
Members of the EU are mandated to use renewable energy to meet 20 percent of their demand by 2020.
Bulgaria, Estonia and Sweden already achieved their 2020 targets, Eurostat said Monday.
The countries with the largest increase in renewable energy usage since 2004 were Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Greece and Italy.
The European Commission called for a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 40 percent from the 1990 benchmark by 2030, an increase from the 20 percent target envisioned for 2020 for members of the European Union. A "more market-orientated approach" would help increase the share of renewable energy to 27 percent by 2030.
