Increasing the EU’s Energy Independence

This technical report by ECOFYS for the World Resources Institute analyzes the potential for energy efficiency and renewable energy to reduce the European Union's dependence on natural gas imports by 2030. It examines the buildings, industry, and energy supply sectors, comparing a business-as-usual scenario with the EU's 2030 framework and a more ambitious 'Energy Independence 2030' scenario.

• Between 1990 and 2012, the EU's net energy import dependency rate rose from 45 per cent to 54 per cent, while natural gas net import dependency specifically increased from 45 per cent in 1990 to 66 per cent in 2012.
• The building sector is the largest consumer of natural gas in Europe, accounting for 6.4 EJ or 39 per cent of total consumption in 2012. Cost-effective efficiency and renewable energy measures could reduce this demand by more than 3 EJ by 2030, a 58 per cent reduction relative to 2012 levels.

APA

van Breevoort, P., Hagemann, M., Höhne, N., Day, T., & de Vos, R. (2014). Increasing the EU’s Energy Independence. World Resources Institute. https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/uploads/ecofys-2014-increasing-eu-s-energy-independence-technical-report.pdf

Chicago

van Breevoort, Pieter, Markus Hagemann, Niklas Höhne, Thomas Day, and Rolf de Vos. Increasing the EU’s Energy Independence. World Resources Institute, 2014. https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/uploads/ecofys-2014-increasing-eu-s-energy-independence-technical-report.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=van Breevoort |first1=Pieter |last2=Hagemann |first2=Markus |last3=Höhne |first3=Niklas |last4=Day |first4=Thomas |last5=de Vos |first5=Rolf |title=Increasing the EU’s Energy Independence |publisher=World Resources Institute |date=20 October 2014 |url=https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/uploads/ecofys-2014-increasing-eu-s-energy-independence-technical-report.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{vanbreevoort2014increasing, author = {van Breevoort, Pieter and Hagemann, Markus and Höhne, Niklas and Day, Thomas and de Vos, Rolf}, title = {{Increasing the EU’s Energy Independence}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2014}, month = oct, url = {https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/uploads/ecofys-2014-increasing-eu-s-energy-independence-technical-report.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }