Abstract
Energy security is one of the most important indicators of sustainable regional development and 'green' growth in implementation of EU strategy Europe 2020. It can provide the harmonized development and cohesion of 'old' and 'new' EU member states. Our paper conducts a comparative study of energy dependency and energy security indicators in the Baltic States. The Baltic countries achieved enormous progress in the use of renewable energy sources and energy efficiency since their EU accession in 2004. The increase of renewable energy capacities in Baltic States also contributed to the reduction of energy intensity and carbon intensity of economy and energy import dependency. Our results show that amongst all three states, it was Estonia that had achieved the best results in increased use of renewables and energy efficiency improvements and had distinguished itself with the best indicators and economic and regional policy outcomes.
Highlights
Energy security is one of the most important indicators of sustainable regional development and “green” growth in implementation of EU strategy Europe 2020
Macroeconomic indicators Energy intensity Carbon intensity Resource intensity Waste intensity Energy balance of trade Energy weight in HICP Difference between energy price change and inflation Ratio of environmental taxes to labour taxes Ratio of environmental taxes to total taxes Sectoral indicators Industry energy intensity Share of energy-intensive industries in the economy Electricity prices for medium-sized industrial users** Gas prices for medium-sized industrial users*** Public R&D for energy Public R&D for the environment Recycling rate of municipal waste Share of GHG emissions covered by ETS* Transport energy intensity Transport carbon intensity Security of energy supply Energy import dependency
Three broad dimensions are identified as relevant: (1) security of supply, defined as the uninterrupted availability of energy sources at an affordable price; (2) energy and carbon intensity as their improvement contributes to reducing energy dependence while bringing additional economic and environmental benefits; (3) the contribution of energy products to trade given its potential impact on the current account deficit (European Commission, 2014)
Summary
“Green growth” is resource-efficient, cleaner economic growth which is more resilient without slowing the pace of economic development. One of the main issues related to the green growth is development of sustainable energy. There are various methods and frameworks to assess sustainable energy development and its interrelations with green growth. Sustainable energy development covers such important dimensions of sustainability: energy security (economic), energy affordability (social) and environmental impact (environmental). Energy security has many dimensions: long-term energy security mainly deals with timely investments to supply energy in line with economic developments and sustainable environmental needs. Lack of energy security is linked to the negative economic and social impacts of either physical unavailability of energy, or prices that are not competitive or are overly volatile. The aim of this paper is to review and compare achievements of Baltic States in reducing energy dependence by applying set of sustainable energy development indicators.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
