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 decrease.

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).

The 2030 EU Climate and Energy Framework sets, among other things, a target of 27% energy efficiency increase. The National Energy and Climate Plan sets a target for Belgium of 1.79 EJ in 2030 (CONCERE and Commission nationale climat, 2019).

This target has to be compared with the one for energy productivity. Assuming an annual 1.4% GDP growth (as in the FPB energy outlook), this target corresponds with a primary energy consumption of 1.36 EJ in 2030. That is substantially lower than the above target of 1.79 EJ. For the purpose of coherence between the different targets, only the desired direction (decrease) is used as objective for primary energy consumption.

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 2021 a lower level to the one measured in 1990.

The primary energy consumption per inhabitant is higher in Belgium (176 gigajoules/inhabitant in 2021) than in the EU27 (123 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 2021. In that year, Malta ranked first with 62 gigajoules/inhabitant and Luxembourg last with 274 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 directly 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 (2019), National Energy and Climate Plan, https://www.nationalenergyclimateplan.be/en (consulted on 14/10/2021).

  • 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).

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