EEA Study Finds Multiple Benefits for Switching to Renewable Electricity
A new study released by the European Environment Agency has found that the increased use of renewable electricity across the European Union has reduced air and water pollution.
This report is welcomed by many across the bloc as it not only reduced some pressures linked to climate change but also increases the motivation to produce targeted actions to help minimise the negative environmental effects of boosting renewable electricity supply.
However, the report also warned that more must be done to reach 2030 zero carbon emissions targets.
According to a EEA briefing by 2018, the increased use of electricity from renewable sources such as solar photovoltaic (PV), wind and biomass, had helped to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions across member states.
The new study found that for the most impact categories tested, the switch from fossil fuels to renewable sources showed clear improvements, when compared to 2005. This is because of the impact intensity of fossil fuel electricity generation is much larger than that of renewable power. Because of this, the impact potential lowered for eutrophication, particulate matter formation and acidification in 2018 when compared to 2005. Meanwhile, ecotoxicity and land occupation-related potentials increased during the period.
The briefing also highlighted that by monitoring targeted actions to fight climate change, it can reduce the effects on freshwater ecotoxicity and land occupation. The report recommends that actions should focus on reducing impacts to material sourcing, production processes in supply chains, and improvements in efficiency of energy and resource.
However, despite the improvements, fossil fuels still produce more energy (38% of all generation in 2019) than renewable sources. The EU electricity’s sector still uses combustion-based installations, which contribute to almost a quarter of all EU greenhouse gas emissions. It also is the primary cause for acidification, eutrophication and ground-level ozone formation.
The report ends by saying that by implementing national climate and energy plans for 2030 would lead to the EU overachieving on existing climate and renewable targets for 2030. However, not enough progress has been made to reach the higher 2030 target or achieving climate neutrality by 2050. To do that, renewable power usage would have to grow to more than 80% by 2050.
Use renewable electricity in garden tools
The only way we can help stop fossil fuels producing more energy than renewable sources is if we all prepare to make changes in our lives. When 89% of councils are still using petrol-powered garden tools, harmful emissions are still regularly going to be entering our atmosphere.
At EGO, we realise change is required. That is why we have developed our market-leading battery technology with petrol-matching performance that can be used across all our tools such as lawn mowers, leaf blowers and hedge trimmers.
To demonstrate our commitment to leaving petrol behind while highlighting the challenges we face as we continue to use fossil fuels, we recently published The Report that showed 63% of trade users faced health difficulties using petrol powered tools.
Discover more about our work by downloading The Report here: https://www.challenge2025.eu/thereport/.
