Future Trajectories of Renewable Energy Consumption in the European Union

Federica Cucchiella,Idiano D’Adamo,Massimo Gastaldi

doi:10.3390/resources7010010

Federica Cucchiella, Idiano D’Adamo + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/resources7010010

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Journal: Resources	Publication Date: Feb 11, 2018
Citations: 52	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of L'Aquila

Abstract

Renewable energy sources (RESs) are able to reduce the European Union (EU)’s dependence on foreign energy imports, also meeting sustainable objectives to tackle climate change and to enhance economic opportunities. Energy management requires a quantitative analysis and the European Commission follows the performance of each Member State (MS) in order to define the corrective measures towards 2020 targets. Starting from historical data reported in the Eurostat database and through a mathematical model, this work proposes future trajectories towards 2020 of the share of energy from renewables (REs) in terms of gross final energy consumption (GFEC). Furthermore, a quantitative analysis based on two indices—(i) the share of REs in GFEC, and (ii) gross final renewable energy consumption (GFREC) per capita—permits a comparison among 28 MSs. The share of REs in GFEC in EU 28 varies from 19.4% to 21.8% in future trajectories towards 2020. Sweden and Finland occupy the top part of the ranking, while six MSs (Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom) are not able to reach the 2020 targets.

Highlights

In March 2015, the European Union (EU) submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on ClimateChange (UNFCCC) the Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) as a result of decisions emerging from the 21st Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 21) [1]
Several approaches are based on the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), in which economic development initially leads to deterioration in the environment and, in the later stage, environmental quality degradation slows down relative to economic growth
Starting from Equations (1)–(10) and considering inputs defined in Tables S1, S2, and Table 2, the share of REs in gross final energy consumption (GFEC) is calculated

Summary

Introduction

In March 2015, the EU submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate. Change (UNFCCC) the Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) as a result of decisions emerging from the 21st Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 21) [1]. The development of REs is a relevant item to achieve the targets, considering that more than half of the world’s current CO2 emissions are due to burning fossil fuels [4]. The relationship among energy consumption, emissions, and economic growth is well defined in the literature [5]. Several approaches are based on the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), in which economic development initially leads to deterioration in the environment and, in the later stage, environmental quality degradation slows down relative to economic growth

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Conclusion