As delegates and world leaders arrived in Brazil for the COP30 summit the European Union was unveiling its latest State of the Energy Union Report 2025.

The report was accompanied by the Union’s Climate Action Progress Report 2025. They show what the EU described as “the significant strides the EU has made in transitioning to a robust and integrated Energy Union by progressing on the clean energy transition with more renewables, addressing high and volatile energy prices and affordability, and further reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions”.

The reports say their findings confirm that the EU is well on track to meet its 2030 climate target, with a 2.5% decrease of GHG emissions in 2024 compared to 2023.

The reports also outlined how the EU has tackled evolving domestic and global challenges and highlight the crucial role of clean and affordable energy and continuous efforts cutting emissions in reaching EU’s security, energy independence, competitiveness and climate neutrality objectives.

It added: “As confirmed in the Commission’s assessment of national energy and climate plans based on the National Energy and Climate Plans and latest greenhouse gas projections submitted by Member States, the EU continues to progress towards the 2030 targets of reducing net GHG emissions by at least 55% compared to 1990 levels and achieving at least 42.5% renewable energy in the EU energy mix.”

The energy report added most of the electricity produced in the EU now comes from clean energy sources, although progress differs between Member States. The newly installed renewable energy capacity in 2024 is estimated at around 77 GW and the EU electricity mix counted 47% renewables already in 2024. Final energy consumption keeps going down, with a 3% decrease compared to 2022 mainly in the residential sector, followed by industry and services.

However the report cautioned: “Reaching the 2030 EU energy targets will require a much faster uptake of renewables and energy efficiency improvements in the coming years.”

GHG emissions in the EU continue to decline, with provisional data for 2024 showing how total net GHG emissions decreased by 2.5% compared to 2023. Emissions were 37.2% lower than in 1990 (or 39% when only domestic net emissions are considered), while GDP was 71% higher, meaning that economic growth continues to decouple from emissions. These figures are aligned with the European Environment Agency Trends and Projections report also release today.

“In the long term, a genuine Energy Union relying on domestically sourced clean energy generation and increased energy efficiency will reduce the EU dependence on fossil fuel imports even further, structurally lower energy prices and contribute to achieve our climate objectives. The EU has significantly reduced the share of Russian gas in its imports from 45% in 2021 to 12% by August 2025,” the reports added.

The EU said the next decade will be “decisive” in completing the Energy Union and in achieving climate-neutrality by 2050. The amendment of the European Climate Law, setting an EU climate target of 90% GHG emissions reduction by 2040 compared to 1990 levels is under negotiation. Once agreed by both co-legislators, the Union said it will be a benchmark for the post-2030 policy framework.

The report warned: “Several challenges are still to be addressed. The EU needs to deliver large-scale electrification, electricity in final energy to increase from 23% target today to around 32% by 2034 and substantially upgrade investments in grids, step up the efforts on energy efficiency and boost innovation to build a competitive clean tech sector.

“To overcome such challenges, the Commission estimates that the EU needs to mobilise €695 billion annually from 2031 to 2040 for energy related investments.”