[open-energy] Using the brilliant display to answer a question

Thu Feb 10 15:41:28 GMT 2011

Hi All,

Congratulation on the exceptional EU energy data display.

I'm very keen to use your display to answer a question. I realise there 
are subtleties in the data used and so I would *really* value your 
insights and advice.

I hope to use what I discover by asking this question to write an OKFN 
blog post.

First though, I should introduce myself to the list. I've worked as a 
researcher of public finances for the Open Knowledge Foundation between 
2009-10 and I still work on Where Does My Money Go in my spare time.

But here's what I'm interested:

How well are the different EU countries meeting their 2020 energy targets?

I believe this question really breaks down into two more questions:

1) What are the 2020 energy targets?

I know an obvious answer is on the website 
(http://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/brief/eu/package_en.htm) which states:

- A reduction in EU greenhouse gas emissions at least 20% below 1990
   levels
- 20% of EU energy consumption to come from renewable resources
- A 20% reduction in primary energy use compared with projected levels, to
   be achieved by improving energy efficiency

Please forgive my ignorance in this, but in these targets what is meant by 
primary energy? How is consumption classified? Which sector's emissions 
are included and which are not? Are international aviation and shipping 
emissions excluded as they are in the Kyoto targets?

2) How are the targets measured?

I assume that the EU measures how well the three targets are being met 
with the data sets published here

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/energy/data/main_tables

I can't see data that will show how well the target to reduce EU 
greenhouse gas emissions to at least 20% below 1990 levels.

I guess that the target for 20% of EU energy consumption to come from 
renewable resources is measured using the table called "Share of renewable 
energy in gross final energy consumption" 
<http://tinyurl.com/renewables-share-in-total-engy>

The closest data I could find that would show the target for a 20% 
reduction in primary energy use compared with projected levels, is in the 
table called "Final energy consumption" 
<http://tinyurl.com/Final-energy-use>

So answering my question about meeting targets clearly just fails when I 
try to match up data sets to targets.

I would really appreciate help on any of these many issues I've raised as 
I would like to write that OKFN blog post about what the diagram shows!

Many thanks,

Lisa Evans