Slowly but surely, year after year, Europeans are increasingly choosing renewable energies. According to figures released June 18 by Eurostat, the statistics office of the European Union, green energies represented 12.4 percent of all energy consumed by Europeans in 2010, compared to 11.7 percent in 2009 and 10.5 percent in 2008.
In 2009, EU countries set individual goals to increase the proportion of renewable energy in the overall amount of energy consumed by their populations by 2020, and an overall target of 20 percent was established.
Among European countries, Sweden reported the highest percentage of renewable energy in its total consumption with 47.9 percent. The country is targeting 49 percent for 2020. Meanwhile, renewable energy use in the UK accounted for just 3.2 percent of all consumption (the country's target is 15 percent by 2020), while 24.6 percent of all energy consumed in Portugal was renewable in 2010.
The forms of energy included in the mix of renewables are solar, wind, hyrdo, biomass and geothermal.