Almost half of the EU27′s consumption of renewables comes from wood and wood waste. In 2009, renewable sources of energy provided 9% of total gross inland energy consumption in the EU27.

In 2010, forest and other wooded land covered 178 million hectares in the EU27, or around 40% of its land area. The EU27 accounted for about 4% of the world’s total forest area. In the EU27, three quarters of forest area was available for wood supply in 2010. In forests available for wood supply, the volume of increment (new growth) exceeded the volume of fellings by more than one third in 2010.

This information comes from the publication Forestry in the EU and the world, issued by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union in connection with the International Year of Forests 2011.

Six Member States had more than half of their land area covered by forest and other wooded land in 2010: Finland (77%), Sweden (76%), Slovenia (63%), Latvia (56%), Spain (55%) and Estonia (54%).

The lowest shares were found in Malta (less than 0.5%), the Netherlands (11%), Ireland and the United Kingdom (both 12%) and Denmark (14%).

Among the Member States, the share of forests available for wood supply in 2010 varied from 11% in Cyprus and 50% in Portugal to 98% in Denmark and Luxembourg.

Share of wood and wood waste in renewable energy consumption ranges from 16% in Cyprus to 97% in Estonia. In the majority of Member States, wood and wood waste was the main renewable energy resource.

Wood and wood waste accounted for more than three quarters of gross inland energy consumption from renewables in 2009 in Estonia (97%), Lithuania (87%), Poland (83%), Finland (82%), Latvia (80%) and Hungary (78%). The lowest shares in 2009 were recorded in Cyprus (16%), Italy (23%), the United Kingdom (27%) and Luxembourg (28%).

In 2009, oil remained the main source of energy in the EU27, with a share of 37% in the total gross inland energy consumption. However, there have been changes in the mix of sources contributing to gross inland energy consumption over the last decade.

The share of renewable energy has almost doubled, from 5% of total gross inland energy consumption in 1999 to 9% in 2009, while gas rose from 22% to 24%, according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. Nuclear energy remained almost stable at 14% during this period, while oil fell from 39% to 37% and solid fuels from 18% to 16%.

Oil represented more than half of energy supply in Malta (100% of total gross inland energy consumption), Cyprus (96%), Luxembourg (63%), Greece (55%), Ireland (52%) and Portugal (50%). The highest shares of gas were observed in the Netherlands (43%), Italy and the UK (both 38%) and Hungary (36%). The largest proportions for solid fuels were registered in Estonia (58%), Poland (54%), the Czech Republic (41%) and Bulgaria (36%), for nuclear energy in France (40%), Lithuania (34%) and Sweden (29%), and for renewable energy in Latvia (36%), Sweden (34%), Austria (27%) and Finland (23%).

All Member States showed increases in the share of renewable energy in their energy supply between 1999 and 2009, with the largest increases in Denmark (from 8% of total gross inland energy consumption in 1999 to 17% in 2009), Sweden (from 27% to 34%), Germany (from 2% to 8%), Portugal (from 13% to 19%), Slovakia (from 3% to 7%), Austria (from 23% to 27%), Latvia (from 32% to 36%), Spain (from 5% to 9%), Slovenia (from 9% to 13%) and Hungary (from 3% to 7%).