Susan Phalippou has summarized the trends in the European heat pump market based on information such as recent JARN articles. In March 2007, the European Union (EU) set a goal for 2020 that includes: improving energy self-sufficiency and protecting the global environment; reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20% from 1990 levels; increasing the ratio of renewable energy to energy consumption to 20%; and achieving an energy efficiency improvement of 20%. This is known as the 20-20-20 policy.
Moreover, in 2009, it was decided that the thermal energy pumped by heat pumps should be regarded as renewable energy. In December 2019, Ursula von der Leyen, president of European Commission (EC), announced the European Green Deal.