Differentiation of climate and energy policy in the countries of the European Union

Abstract

Purpose: The energy policy of the European Union focuses mainly on three areas: renewable energy, reducing the emission of harmful pollutants, in particular CO2, and increasing the efficiency of electricity used. Sustainable energy management, in turn, is undoubtedly associated with the increased use of renewable energy sources ensuring energy security as well as the diversification of energy supplies that support and improve the quality of the environment. The aim of the article is to present the diversity of the European Union countries in terms of actions taken in the field of energy policy resulting from climate and energy goals. Design/methodology/approach: On the basis of the objectives of the energy policy presented in the EU directives, indicators describing the activities of the Member States in this respect were selected. Then, they were subjected to substantive and statistical verification, leaving 6 variables. The tool of Multidimensional Statistical Analysis, which is a synthetic measure, was used to develop a synthetic measure of the level of achievement of the goals of the climate and energy policy. Two types of analyses were used: static for international comparisons between the European Union countries, conducted for 2021, and dynamic, for the years 2011-2021. Findings: The most favourable situation in terms of activities aimed at reducing emissions of harmful substances and improving the energy efficiency of countries can be observed in the hitherto leaders of Sweden and Finland. Together with Denmark, these countries have set very ambitious national targets for achieving a share of at least 50% from renewable energy in gross final energy consumption. All countries have increased their energy productivity index. Bulgaria, Italy and Slovakia have made the greatest reductions in pollutant emissions. In the interests of energy independence, countries are trying to increase energy production from domestic resources. The greatest improvements in this field were made in Ireland, Latvia, Portugal and Finland. The division into three groups of countries implementing the energy and climate policy introduced by the EU showed that the indicators that differentiate countries to the greatest extent, among the group of selected variables, are greenhouse gas emissions and the energy dependency ratio. Keywords: energy and climate policy, EU countries, synthetic measure. Category of the paper: Research paper.