Updated

The European Environment Agency says EU members "are collectively well on their way" to meeting 2020 targets on renewables, energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions.

The Copenhagen-based agency says that despite a slight energy consumption increase in 2015, the bloc in recent years had lowered its energy consumption and was increasingly using renewable energy.

The EEA says preliminary figures for 2015 show that 16.4 percent of total energy consumed came from renewables, up from 16.0 percent in 2014. The goal is to have 20 percent of the European Union's final energy consumption coming from renewable sources by 2020.

Agency head Hans Bruyninckx said Thursday the use of renewable energy in the transportation sector remains "insufficient and greenhouse gas emissions are rising again.