4 April 2023: The EU co-legislators have reached a provisional political agreement on the revision of the Renewable Energy Directive [1]. The agreement raises the EU's binding renewable target for 2030 to a minimum of 42.5%, up from the current 32% target and almost doubling the existing share of renewable energy in the EU. Negotiators also agreed that the EU would aim to reach 45% of renewables by 2030.

On transport, the provisional agreement gives the possibility for Member States to choose between:

• a binding target of 14.5% reduction of greenhouse gas intensity in transport from the use of renewables by 2030
• or a binding target of at least 29% share of renewables within the final consumption of energy in the transport sector by 2030

The provisional agreement sets a binding combined sub-target of 5.5% for advanced biofuels (generally derived from non-food-based feedstocks) and renewable fuels of non-biological origin (mostly renewable hydrogen and hydrogen-based synthetic fuels) in the share of renewable energies supplied to the transport sector.

Within this target, there is a minimum requirement of 1% of renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBOs) in the share of renewable energies supplied to the transport sector in 2030.

The provisional agreement provides that industry would increase their use of renewable energy annually by 1.6%. They agreed that 42% of the hydrogen used in industry should come from renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBOs) by 2030 and 60% by 2035.

The agreement introduces the possibility for Member States to discount the contribution of RFNBOs in industry use by 20% under two conditions:

• if the member states’ national contribution to the binding overall EU target meets their expected contribution
• the share of hydrogen from fossil fuels consumed in the member state is not more 23% in 2030 and 20% in 2035

Next steps

• The political agreement now requires formal adoption by the European Parliament and the Council.
• Once this process is completed, the new legislation will be published in the Official Journal of the Union and enter into force.