Cyprus renewable energy use in transport slips

Renewable energy use in transport across the European Union edged higher in 2024, but Cyprus recorded a slight decline, according to a report from Eurostat released on Wednesday.

The figures show that renewable energy in transport at EU level reached 11.2 per cent in 2024, marking a 0.2 percentage point increase from 2023 and continuing a long-term upward trend from 1.4 per cent in 2004, when the time series began.

Despite this progress, the EU remains 17.8 percentage points below the 29 per cent target for 2030 on the use of renewable energy sources in transport.

In Cyprus, updated Eurostat data show that the share of energy from renewable sources in transport stood at 7.192 per cent in 2024, down slightly from 7.285 per cent in 2023.

This corresponds to a year-on-year decrease of 0.1 percentage points, placing Cyprus among the seven EU member states that recorded a decline between 2023 and 2024.

The longer-term trend for Cyprus, however, points to a marked expansion in renewable energy use in transport.

In 2014, the share stood at just 2.68 per cent, meaning that over a decade the island has achieved an increase of more than 4.5 percentage points, even though momentum eased slightly in the most recent year.

Greece also recorded a decrease of 0.1 percentage points in 2024, while Slovenia posted the largest fall at 0.8 percentage points.

By contrast, 19 EU countries increased their use of renewable energy in transport over the same period, highlighting significant divergence in national performance.

The strongest gains were observed in Latvia, which recorded a 7.4 percentage point increase, and the Netherlands, up by 6.2 percentage points, reflecting rapid acceleration in the deployment of renewable transport fuels.

At the top of the ranking, Sweden remained the EU leader with a 26.4 per cent share of renewable energy in transport in 2024, despite registering the sharpest annual decline of 7.2 percentage points.

Sweden had been the only EU country to exceed the 29 per cent target in 2023, when its share reached 33.6 per cent.

Finland followed with 20.3 per cent, while the Netherlands reached 19.7 per cent.

At the opposite end of the scale, Croatia recorded the lowest share at 0.9 per cent, followed by Greece at 3.9 per cent and the Czech Republic at 5.7 per cent, underlining the uneven pace of transition across the bloc.

For Cyprus, the data illustrate steady long-term progress since 2014, tempered by a marginal setback in 2024, at a time when the EU as a whole continues to face a substantial gap to its 2030 transport decarbonisation target.