EU agrees deal to reduce 2030 energy consumption

BRUSSELS — EU countries agreed a deal Friday with the European Parliament to cut projected energy consumption by 2030, part of the a green push made more urgent by Russia's war on Ukraine. 

The agreement is an important strand of the EU's ambitious climate goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55 per cent by the end of the decade. 

But it also comes as the bloc has stepped up efforts to save energy since Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion sent prices skyrocketing last year. 

The deal obliges the EU to reduce energy use by 2030 by 11.7 per cent in relation to an earlier projection of expected levels. 

It sets targets for each of the bloc's 27 countries to limit consumption by around 1.5 per cent annually from 2024 to 2030. 

"For the first time ever, we have a target for energy consumption that member states are obliged to live up to," said Danish MEP Niels Fuglsang, the parliament's pointman on the issue. 

"Today was a great victory. An agreement not only good for our climate, but bad for Putin."

While Friday's agreement was part of the EU's long-standing push for net-zero, the bloc has already been slashing its gas use due to the fallout of Russia's war on Ukraine. 

Faced with spiralling energy bills last year, the bloc agreed in July to cut gas usage between August 2022 and March 2023 by 15 per cent compared to the average of the previous five years.

The bloc's executive said Thursday that it will tell member states to continue to reduce consumption next winter.