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{{cquote|''' 'Timing matters''': What measures should the EU take in order to increase energy efficiency from production to consumption and across sectors?}}
Optimising energy efficiency is one of the top priorities of the EU’s Energy policy. The Union is currently facing issues with energy wastage, dependency on foreign imports and has set goals for lowering energy consumption of the 2007 levels by 20% in 2020. Increasing energy efficiency from the very first step of production down to the commercial consumer is a matter which can yield multi-faceted benefits: it can reduce the amount of environmental degradation which results from energy production, decrease electricity costs and energy dependency from countries outside the Union, as well as make the EU energy market more competitive. Thus, with the development of new, environmentally friendly technologies, key steps leading to the ideal Energy Union - from production to consumption - are required. The benefits of this change are multiple: energy security for all citizens - even in the case of emergency -, financial savings, as well as less environmental degradation
==Relevance==
A stark drawback of conventional energy production is environmental degradation. Only less than one-fifth of the overall energy production of the Union is derived from renewable energy sources, meaning that for the rest, the EU is utilising fossil fuels or nuclear energy, leading to destructive consequences on the environment.
In 2014, Eurostat reported that the EU, as a whole emitted 4 419.2 million tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere , as a result of energy production from non-renewable sources. Despite this figure being 22.9% lower than the amount released in 1990<ref>http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Greenhouse_gas_emission_statistics</ref> environmental damage caused by the release of such a large amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, lead to the depletion of the ozone layer, and consequently, global warming. Another way in which energy production can harm the environment is through the improper disposal of radioactive waste: a by-product of nuclear energy production. HoweverIn fact, nuclear energy does not only pose a threat to the environment due to its by-products, their possible mis-handling, and the amount of time they require to decompose but also due to environmental degradation which can result from the high risk it bears, should a reactor be left unattended. For this reasonuse of nuclear energy, Germany has sworn off using nuclear energyit. Meanwhile, whilst two reactors in Belgium have been shut down, after the discovery of cracks.<ref>http://www.europarl.europa.eu/atyourservice/en/displayFtu.html?ftuId=FTU_5.7.5.html</ref>
==== Monopolies and weak energy market ====