Cyprus has second highest fossil fuel share in EU

Cyprus has uses the second highest share of fossil fuels of all EU member states, Eurostat figures published on Thursday show.

In 2019, Malta (97 per cent) was the EU Member State with the highest share of fossil fuels in gross available energy, followed by Cyprus and the Netherlands, both 92 per cent and Poland with 90 per cent.

Most of the other member states had shares between 60 per cent and 80 per cent. Only Sweden (32 per cent), Finland (43 per cent) and France (50 per cent) had shares below 60 per cent.

In 2019, fossil fuels made up 71 per cent of the gross available energy in the European Union. This percentage has decreased significantly over the last decades, due to the increase in renewable energy. Since 1990, the first year for which data are available, the percentage of fossil fuel used in the EU has decreased by 10.9 percentage points.

“In the EU, we still rely largely on fossil fuels for our overall national energy supply, illustrated by the ratio of fossil fuels in gross available energy,” Eurostat reported.

“Of the EU in the last 10 years, only Lithuania has increased its share of fossil fuels in gross available energy, by 10 percentage points (from 56 per cent in 2009 to 66 per cent in 2019). The largest decrease by 19 percentage points was measured in Denmark, 83 per cent to 64 per cent.”

Comparing 2019 to 2018, only two EU countries, Latvia and Austria, increased their share of fossil fuels in gross available energy, each by 1 pp. Eight countries’ figures, including Cyprus, remained roughly the same.