Definition: primary energy consumption is the energy imported or produced in Belgium before any processing (mainly oil refining and power generation), excluding exports, marine bunkers (fuel provided to ships for international journeys) and non-energy uses (for example oil used as raw material in the chemical industry). The indicator is expressed in exajoules (EJ= 10¹⁸ joules). EU countries are compared on the basis of primary energy consumption per inhabitant. The indicator is calculated by the FPB on the basis of data from Eurostat.

Goal: the primary energy consumption must reach 1,41 exajoules by 2030.

The Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs adopted by the UN in 2015 include target 7.3: “By 2030, double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency”.

The Federal Long-Term Strategic Vision for Sustainable Development includes objective 18: “The increase in the energy efficiency of products will continue to be pursued with a view to reducing final energy consumption” (Belgian Official Gazette, 08/10/2013).

Directive (EU) 2023/1791 on energy efficiency and amending Regulation (EU) 2023/955 (recast) sets a target of reducing primary energy consumption in the EU by around 34% compared with 2005 levels (Official Journal of the European Union). Although this objective is not translated into binding targets for EU Member States, an indicative primary energy consumption reduction target for Belgium by 2030 of 1.41 EJ can be calculated using a formula set out in the directive 2023/1791 (Concere/CNC, 2023). It's this target that is used for the evaluation.

The target for reducing primary energy consumption by 2030 presented in the Draft Update of the Belgian National Energy and Climate Plan 2021-2030 (PNEC 2023) is less ambitious than the indicative target proposed by the EU. It corresponds to the result of projections 'with additional measures' of this plan and amounts to 1.52 EJ.

International comparison: as in Belgium, the primary energy consumption in the EU27 increased from the nineties to the early 2000s, with a maximum level in 2006. It then gradually decreases to reach in 2022 a lower level to the one measured in 1990.

The primary energy consumption per inhabitant is higher in Belgium (162 gigajoules/inhabitant in 2022) than in the EU27 (118 gigajoules/inhabitant). The gap remained stable over time. This is due to the large number of intermediate goods industries (steel industry, chemical industry) consuming large amounts of energy and to the poor insulation of the building stock in Belgium. When Member States are divided into three groups, Belgium is part of the group with the poorest performance in 2022. In that year, Romania ranked first with 68 gigajoules/inhabitant and Luxembourg last with 243 gigajoules/inhabitant.

In Belgium, such as at European level (Eurostat, 2015), the evolution of the indicator since the mid-2000s is primarily due to the implementation of energy efficiency policies, the variation of the economic cycles, climate variations, as well as changes in the economic structure (including changes in the weight of industry over time).

UN indicator: the selected indicator does not correspond to any monitoring indicator for the SDGs but is related to target 7.3. Indeed, the increase in energy efficiency results in a decrease in primary energy consumption. Both concepts are therefore related.

Sources

• General

  • SDGs, Sustainable Development Goals: United Nations (2015), Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 25 September 2015, document A/RES/70/1.

  • Indicators: United Nations (2017), Work of the Statistical Commission pertaining to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 6 July 2017, document A/RES/71/313.

  • UN Sustainable Development: https://sdgs.un.org/ (consulted on 18/01/2023).

  • UN Sustainable Development Goal indicators website: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/ (consulted on 18/01/2023).

• Specific

  • Belgian Official Gazette: http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/cgi/welcome.pl; research on http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/doc/rech_f.htm (consulted on 24/09/2020).

  • Concere/CNC (2023), Draft update of the Belgian National Energy and Climate Plan, https://www.nationalenergyclimateplan.be/en (consulted on 23/10/2024).

  • Eurostat (2015), Sustainable development in the European Union, 2015 monitoring report of the EU sustainable development strategy, http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat (consulted on 24/09/2020).

  • Official Journal of the European Union: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/oj/direct-access.html?locale=nen (consulted on 23/10/2024).

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