Europe’s Pitch Book

Latest edition · September 22, 2026

ING Think europes energy goals all point in the same direction

ING argues that Europe's goals of lowering carbon emissions, cutting energy costs, and reducing geopolitical exposure are fundamentally aligned. By curbing demand, electrifying final uses, ramping up renewables, and balancing power grids, Europe is establishing a more resilient and cheaper clean energy architecture.

Europe faces core challenges driven by its historical over-reliance on imported fossil fuels: elevated costs, climate targets, and geopolitical vulnerability. In response, ING outlines five active levers: reducing total energy demand, accelerating electrification toward 46% by 2040, expanding solar and wind capacity, balancing regional supply and demand through storage and interconnectors, and diversifying remaining fossil needs away from Russia. While annual transition investments must expand from €330 billion to €695 billion, they will substantially displace recurring fossil imports (which reached €396 billion in 2025), stimulate a domestic cleantech sector that already employs one million people, and deliver net savings to households.

Key takeaways from the latest edition

• 1.Europe's key energy goals—cutting emissions, minimizing geopolitical vulnerabilities, and reducing energy costs—all align toward using less energy, electrifying end uses, and scaling renewables.
• 2.Electrification is becoming cheaper, with roughly 75% of final energy demand now electrifiable at a lower lifetime cost than fossil fuels, potentially saving households over €2,000 annually via heat pumps and EVs.
• 3.Renewables are overtaking fossil power in Europe, with wind and solar capacity expanding rapidly and generation costs falling sharply (63% lower for wind and 89% lower for solar since 2010).

What this series covers

• 1 Use less energy
• 2 Switch to electrons
• 3 Produce more renewables
• More than half of electricity generation from renewable sources
• 6 Balance demand and supply
• 5 Diversify the remaining need
• Putting the price tag into perspective
• A growing sector
• Employment in EU clean tech has doubled in a decade
• Is it a problem that others are faster?
• Fast change, a clear direction and winners

Edition archive

• ING Think europes energy goals all point in the same direction

  September 22, 2026

• ING Think europes pitch book defence is not free but europe can afford it

  September 15, 2026

• ING Think europes pitch book if they invested europeans would prefer to do that in europe

  September 8, 2026

• ING Think europes pitch book rethinking the productivity gap

  September 1, 2026

• ING Think europes pitch book doomed by demographics

  August 25, 2026