Final energy consumption intensity

Assessment versions

Published (reviewed and quality assured)

• No published assessments

Rationale

Justification for indicator selection

Historically, economic growth influenced final energy consumption in the end-use sectors, particularly transport, industry and services. Final energy consumption of households is driven by disposable income (a function of economic growth), population, the number of households and size of the dwellings. The indicator measures to what extent there is a decoupling between final energy consumption in various sectors and these drivers. A decoupling of final energy consumption from economic growth indicates a reduction in environmental pressures from energy production and consumption due to avoided supply of energy.

Scientific references

• EEA (2009a) - European Community emission inventory report 1990 - 2007 under the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP); EEA Technical report, No 8/2009; Copenhagen : EEA, 2009
• EEA (2008) - Climate for a transport change TERM 2007: indicators tracking transport and environment in the European Union
• EEA (2009b) - Greenhouse gas emissions trends and projections in Europe 2009; EEA report No. 9/2009
• Newly created RationaleReference

Indicator definition

Units

Policy context and targets

Context description

Environmental context

In Europe there are two prevailing objectives: to continue generating economic growth (the Lisbon Agenda) while, at the same time protecting the environment and ensuing security of energy supply. Achieving these goals simultaneously requires decoupling the economic growth from energy-consumption. This indicator shows the extent to which this is happening (or not) for the four main sectors (for definitions for each sector please see the “Methodology” section): households, services and agriculture, industry and transport. Relative decoupling occurs when energy consumption grows, but more slowly than the underlying driver. Absolute decoupling occurs when energy consumption is stable or falls while the driver grows.

A shift towards absolute decoupling would indicate that pressures on the environment from energy production and consumption are decreasing (because of avoided energy supply) but the magnitude of the impact depends both on the total amount of avoided energy consumption as well as the implications for the energy mix (in other words which fuels have been used less because of the reduction in final energy consumption).

Policy context

Proposal for a directive on energy efficiency (COM(2011) 370 final). On 22 June 2011, the European Commission proposed a new set of measures in order to meet the EU’s 2020 energy efficiency target.

A Roadmap for moving to a competitive low carbon economy in 2050 (COM(2011) 112 final). Presents a roadmap for action in line with a 80-95% greenhouse gas emissions reduction by 2050.

Energy Efficiency Plan 2011 (COM(2011) 109 final). Proposes additional measures to achieve the 20 % primary energy saving target by 2020.

Council adopted on 6 April 2009 the climate-energy legislative package containing measures to fight climate change and promote renewable energy. This package is designed to achieve the EU's overall environmental target of a 20 % reduction in greenhouse gases and a 20 % share of renewable energy in the EU's total energy consumption by 2020.The climate action and renewable energy (CARE) package includes the following main policy documents:

• Directive 2009/29/ECof the European parliament and of the Council amending directive 2003/87/EC so as to improve and extend the greenhouse gas emission allowance trading scheme of the community.
• Directive 2009/31/EC of the European parliament and of the Council on the geological storage of carbon dioxide.
• Directive 2009/28/EC of the European parliament and of the Council on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources.
• Community guidelines on state aid for environmental protection (2008/c 82/01).
• Directive 2008/101/EC of the European parliament and of the Council amending directive 2003/87/EC so as to include aviation activities in the scheme for greenhouse gas Emission allowance trading within the community
• Regulation (EC) no 443/2009 of the European parliament and of the Council setting emission performance standards for new passenger cars as part of the community’s integrated approach to reduce CO₂ emissions from light-duty vehicles

Energy Services Directive; Directive 2006/32/EC. Sets out clear mandatory targets for annual energy intensity improvements at Member States’ level and for the share of energy efficient public procurement for the period 2006-2012. For the same period, strong incentives were given by the Directive for Member States to ensure that suppliers of energy offer a certain level of energy services.

Second Strategic Energy Review; COM(2008) 781 final. Strategic review on short, medium and long term targets on EU energy security.

Eco-Design Directive; COM(2008) 778 final/2. Directive on intensification of existing regulation on energy-efficiency of products.

Energy Performance Buildings Directive; Directive 2002/91/EC. The Member States must apply minimum requirements as regards the energy performance of new and existing buildings, ensure the certification of their energy performance and require the regular inspection of boilers and air conditioning systems in buildings.

Energy Performance Buildings Directive (recast); Directive 2010/31/EU. Strengthens the energy performance requirements of the 2002 Directive.

Targets

No targets have been specified

Related policy documents

• 2002/91/EC
  Energy Performance Buildings Directive
• 2006/32/EC
  Energy Services Directive on energy end-use efficiency and energy services and repealing Council Directive 93/76/EEC
• 2008/c 82/01
  Community guidelines on state aid for environmental protection (2008/c 82/01)
• 2009/31/EC
  Directive 2009/31/ec of the European parliament and of the Council on the geological storage of carbon dioxide.
• COM(2008) 778
  Eco-Design Directive; COM(2008) 778
• COM(2008) 781
  COM(2008) 781 final - Second Strategic Energy Review
• COM(2011) 109 final: Energy Efficiency Plan 2011
  Energy Efficiency Plan 2011
• COM(2011) 112 - A Roadmap for moving to a competitive low carbon economy in 2050
  With its "Roadmap for moving to a competitive low-carbon economy in 2050" the European Commission is looking beyond these 2020 objectives and setting out a plan to meet the long-term target of reducing domestic emissions by 80 to 95% by mid-century as agreed by European Heads of State and governments. It shows how the sectors responsible for Europe's emissions - power generation, industry, transport, buildings and construction, as well as agriculture - can make the transition to a low-carbon economy over the coming decades.
• COM(2011) 370 final Proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on energy efficiency and repealing Directives
  DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on energy efficiency and repealing Directives 2004/8/EC and 2006/32/EC {SEC(2011) 779 final} {SEC(2011) 780 final}
• DIRECTIVE 2005/32/EC
  The Directive establises a framework for the setting of ecodesign requirements for energy-using products and amends Council Directive 92/42/EEC and Directives 96/57/EC and 2000/55/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council
• DIRECTIVE 2008/101/EC
  DIRECTIVE 2008/101/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 19 November 2008 amending Directive 2003/87/EC so as to include aviation activities in the scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading within the Community
• DIRECTIVE 2009/28/EC
  DIRECTIVE 2009/28/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 23 April 2009 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources and amending and subsequently repealing Directives 2001/77/EC and 2003/30/EC
• Directive 2009/29/EC
  Directive 2009/29/EC of the European parliament and of the Council amending directive 2003/87/EC so as to improve and extend the greenhouse gas emission allowance trading scheme of the community.
• DIRECTIVE 2010/31/EU - Energy performance of buildings directive
  DIRECTIVE 2010/31/EU OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 19 May 2010 on the energy performance of buildings(recast)
• REGULATION (EC) No 443/2009 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL 443/2009
  Regulation (ec) no 443/2009 of the European parliament and of the Council setting emission performance standards for new passenger cars as part of the community's integrated approach to reduce CO2 emissions from light-duty vehicles.

Methodology

Methodology for indicator calculation

Geographical coverage:
The Agency had 32 member countries at the time of writing of this fact sheet. These are the 27 European Union Member States and Turkey, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. No 2007-2009 data available for Iceland (Iceland do not appear on the graphs)

Temporal coverage:
1990-2009

Methodology and frequency of data collection:
Data collected annually. Eurostat definitions and concepts for energy statistics http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_SDDS/en/nrg_quant_esms.htm

Methodology of data manipulation:
The coding (used in the Eurostat New Cronos database) and specific components of the indicators are:

• Total final energy intensity: final energy consumption 101700 divided by the gross domestic product, conducted from the Eurostat datasheets (b1gm Gross domestic product at 2000 market prices mio_eur_clv2000 )     
• Household energy intensity: Final energy consumption households 102010 divided by PJAN Population by sex and age on 1. January of each year.
• Transport energy intensity: Final energy consumption transport 101900 divided by B1GM GDP and main components - Constant   2000 prices.
• Industry energy intensity: Final energy consumption industry 101800 divided by the gross value added for industry conducted from the Eurostat datasheets (NACE C_D_E  Total industry GVA)
• Services energy intensity : Final energy consumption Services and Others 102035, 102040 divided by the gross value added of services (Wholesale and retail trade, Financial intermediation; Public administration and defence : NACE G to P)
• Agriculture energy intensity : Final energy consumption Agriculture, fisheries  102030, 102020 divided by the gross value added of agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing –NACE A_B

The gross value added (GVA) for Industry, Agriculture and Tertiary and GDP are not available in Eurostat for all the countries before 1995. GDP before 1995 has been calculated with GDP growth rate published by country by the World Bank (Reference World Development Indicators 2011). GDP for EU-27 is the sum of countries.

Average annual rate of growth calculated using: [(last year / base year) ^ (1 / number of years) –1]*100.

Methodology for gap filling

When the percentage of change  was not available for a particular year, the European Commission's annual macroeconomic database (Ameco) was used as data source. The figure for the missing year is estimated on the basis of the annual growth rate from Ameco.

Methodology references

No methodology references available.

Data specifications

EEA data references

• No datasets have been specified here.

External data references

• World development indicators
• Annual national accounts (nama10)
• Energy statistics (Eurostat)

Data sources in latest figures

Uncertainties

Methodology uncertainty

The sectoral breakdown of final energy consumption includes industry, transport, households, services, agriculture, fisheries and other sectors. To be consistent with projection data, the indicator aggregates agriculture, fisheries and other sectors together with the services sector. The inclusion of agriculture and fisheries together with the services sector is however questionable given their divergent trends.

Because the main focus of the indicator is on trends, energy intensity is presented as an index. It should be noted that the final energy intensities between sectors, and also the total final energy intensity, are not directly comparable, because as described above, the definitions of energy intensity within each sector not identical. The indicator serves to highlight the evolution in energy intensity within each sector.

Data sets uncertainty

Data have been traditionally compiled by Eurostat through the annual Joint Questionnaires, shared by Eurostat and the International Energy Agency, following a well established and harmonised methodology. Methodological information on the annual Joint Questionnaires and data compilation can be found in Eurostat's web page for metadata on energy statistics. http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_SDDS/en/nrg_quant_esms.htm

Rationale uncertainty

No uncertainty has been specified