Fossil fuel reliance in EU increased slightly in 2022

In 2022, the EU’s reliance on fossil fuels for its overall energy supply stood at 70.9%, as illustrated by the ratio of fossil fuels in gross available energy (the total energy demand of a country or region). This is a slight increase from the levels in 2021, where it stood at 69.9%. 

This percentage decreased significantly over the last decades. Since 1990, the first year for which data are available, it dropped by around 11.5 percentage points (pp), mostly due to the increase in renewable energy.
 

Source dataset: nrg_ind_ffgae

In 2022, Malta (96.1%) remained the EU country with the highest share of fossil fuels in gross available energy, followed by Cyprus (89.3%) and the Netherlands (87.6%). Most of the other EU countries had shares between 50% and 85%. Only Sweden (30.4%) and Finland (38.3%) had shares below 50%.

Compared with 2021, in 2022, the largest, yet rather small, decreases in the share of fossil fuels in gross available energy were in Latvia (-3.7 pp), Slovakia (-2.1 pp), and Hungary (-1.9 pp). The largest increases were in Estonia (+4.2 pp), France (+2.9 pp), and Bulgaria (2.8 pp).

Source dataset: nrg_ind_ffgae

The year 2022 was also exceptional from the energy perspective. Being the first full calendar year after major restrictions related to COVID-19 were lifted, it was also marked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, and price spikes of various energy commodities.

Furthermore, a decrease in nuclear power production in 2022 was noted, (see recent news item for nuclear). Even if renewable energy sources have increased, this was not enough to compensate for the decrease in nuclear energy. 

Eurostat has recently released annual energy statistics for 2022. Visit the Eurostat database for new data on commodity balances, energy balances, and energy indicators, and turn on your alerts for the updated Statistics Explained articles coming out in the next 3 months. If you want to know more about the energy sector in the EU in an interactive and customizable way, you can also visit the energy visualisations page for a wide range of interactive tools, for example energy flow charts and energy trade.