European Union Climate Policy Research Articles

Europeanization Processes of the EU Energy Policy in Visegrad Countries in the Years 2005–2018

Energy issues are sensitive for the four Visegrad countries as European Union (EU) member states; thus, this area’s convergence might be problematic for these countries. There is a clear research gap concerning the processes of Europeanization of the energy policy in the Visegrad countries. This article aims to identify and evaluate the progress of four Visegrad countries (V4) in implementing the EU energy goals in the context of the Europeanization. The article uses three main methods: Hellwig’s method, Kendall’s rank concordance coefficient, and k-means clustering. These calculations will allow one to study the Europeanization processes, which means checking the gamma convergence. For calculations, we use the available statistical data from Eurostat for the years 2005–2018. Poland and other Central European countries, including Czechia, and Hungary, largely depend on coal for their energy needs. The empirical results have shown that there have been no significant changes in the classification of EU countries in terms of their fulfillment of the EU climate and energy targets in the analyzed period. This is the case in all EU member states, including the Visegrad Group countries, but except for Poland. This means that the level of Europeanization of the energy policy and its effectiveness is similar in all member states except for Poland, which is becoming a kind of the exception. Throughout the investigating period, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia were close to meeting the set targets and could be rated high compared to the EU countries. Poland, especially since 2015, has been noticeably and increasingly distanced from the other V4 countries. It can be perceived as a gradual drift away from Europeanization of the EU climate and energy policy in Poland.

Towards a European Green Deal: The evolution of EU climate and energy policy mixes

A growing scholarship argues that decarbonization cannot be achieved with single instruments like carbon pricing alone. A broader mix of reinforcing policies is required. This literature focuses on how policies can accelerate technological innovation, restrict polluting activities, promote green growth, and ensure social justice. Applying the policy mix literature to the European Union (EU), this article examines the development of climate and energy policies from separate and narrow initiatives to coordinated policy packages to achieve increasingly ambitious climate targets, culminating with the European Green Deal. The starting point to explain this policy development is that EU policies will reflect the positions of the ‘least ambitious’ actors when unanimity is required. Examination of different policy phases shows that EU policy mixes are not only needed to fulfil different transition functions—they also provide opportunities to combine different actor interests to raise climate ambitions. The EU institutions have been instrumental in crafting policy packages that exempt and compensate the least climate-ambitious actors. The Paris Agreement has also provided an enabling context for higher EU ambitions. Looking towards the future, the corona-induced recession has so far mainly been used by the EU as an opportunity to strengthen climate ambitions and the European Green Deal.

Management of Energy Sources and the Development Potential in the Energy Production Sector—A Comparison of EU Countries

Appropriate management of energy sources is one of the basic undertakings in the energy sector. Climate policy changes and the development of technologies enabling the acquisition of energy in a way to reduce the negative impact on the natural environment lead to diversity in the structure of the energy sources being used. Therefore, it is important to assess the impact of these changes on the development of energy sectors by particular countries. The article contains the analysis of various energy sources utilization by European Union (EU) countries and the assessment of the energy production sector potential, and the development of this potential in relation to changes in the energy sources structure. For this purpose, a multidimensional comparative analysis was used. The data for the analysis are derived from the Eurostat database for the years 2017 and 2019 for 28 EU countries and they concern the use of energy sources such as combustible fuels, coal and manufactured gases, natural gas, oil and petroleum products (excluding biofuel portion), hydro/hydropower, wind power, solar photovoltaic, nuclear fuels and other fuels n.e.c. As a result of the research, it was proved that in most EU countries the changes introduced in the structure of the use of various energy sources, according to EU climate policy, have a positive impact on the development of particular energy sectors.

Ranking EU Climate and Energy Policies

Abstract The European Union (EU) has set ambitious targets to increase the overall energy efficiency and decrease the environmental impact by introducing the ‘Green Deal.’ It is an EU plan for the transition to zero greenhouse gas emissions. The overall data analyses of GHG emissions per capita and GDP value in different EU countries show that the GDP increase in 2010–2017 has not increased GHG emissions. Therefore, the link between the GDP increase through energy resource usage increase has been eliminated. However, not all of the EU 27 member states contributed to the overall EU green policy equally. The article presents the methodology for the energy and environmental performance status analyses by evaluating nine different indicators (share of renewable energy, greenhouse gases per GDP, energy intensity, primary efficiency, industry efficiency, energy consumption in households, space heating efficiency, pollutant emissions from transport and specific energy consumption of transport sector) for EU member states. Indicators have been tested through correlation analyses. The use of multidimensional Energy and climate policy indicator has been proposed to rank the performance of different EU countries. The results show that the countries with the highest score in climate and energy indicator values are Sweden, Denmark, Latvia, Austria, Finland, Ireland, and Lithuania. The lowest obtained values are Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and France.

CBAM for the EU: A Policy Proposal

An important element of the comprehensive suite of climate and environmental policies advanced under the “European Green Deal” (EGD) is the “Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism” (CBAM). CBAM is a policy safeguard against emissions leakage, that is, the relocation of emitting activities from the European Union (EU) to third countries due to the impact of EU climate policy ambition on production and investment decisions. A legislative proposal setting out the parameters of the CBAM is expected from the European Commission by the end of June 2021 as part of the “Fit for 55” package of initiatives operationalizing the strengthened climate target under the EGD. As of now, the design parameters of a future EU CBAM are still uncertain. What the process so far – including a formal consultation process carried out by the European Commission – has unmistakably shown, however, are considerable divergences in the views of key EU stakeholders about the preferred CBAM design, and, in some cases, what they consider to be red lines. This report proposes a CBAM design that seeks to balance trade-offs so as to secure its environmental and competitiveness benefits while maximizing its administrative, legal and technical viability, as well as political acceptability. An elegant technical proposal that ignores political feasibility is not one that should be taken seriously. Beyond the mere design, this proposal also addresses important procedural aspects and the timeline of implementation, which are critical for legal and political acceptability.

Analysis of Gas and Dust Emissions From the Mining and Quarrying Sector in the European Union Countries

Abstract Despite the ongoing changes in the energy and economic structure of the European Union countries, mineral and energy resources such as hard coal, brown coal, natural gas, copper ores, zinc ores and many other minerals continue to be extracted. Each year, the mining and extraction sector emits thousands of tons of harmful substances into the atmosphere, in the form of greenhouse and other air-polluting gases, as well as harmful dusts. These substances include, amongst others, carbon dioxide, methane, carbon monoxide, as well as PM2.5 and PM10. The European Union climate policy clearly recommends that the exploitation of mineral resources be carried out in full respect of the principles of their rational, economical and environmentally neutral acquisition, which is confirmed by the promoted strategy of sustainable development economy. Therefore, this means the necessity to undertake actions aimed at limiting the emission of greenhouse gases and air pollutants into the atmosphere. To assess the actions taken by the European Union countries to date with respect to limiting those emissions, a comparative analysis was carried out for the particular countries. This analysis encompassed the emission of harmful substances from the mining and quarrying sector by the European Union countries in the years 2008 and 2017. The purpose of the analysis was to show the diversity of those countries in terms of the emission of harmful gases and dusts, as well as to divide them into similar groups. Such a division paves the way for developing a common climate policy and exchanging experiences between the countries from the particular groups. The European Union countries were divided into similar groups using the k-means grouping method. Comparison was also made for the emissions of the substances under analysis for the particular countries over the research years. The results obtained unequivocally demonstrate that this emission has been limited in the European Union, but there are countries where the emission of certain substances has increased.

Increasing the ambition of the EU Nationally Determined Contribution: lessons from a survey of experts and students

The Paris Agreement targets and an increasingly large public opinion movement world-wide require to progressively raise the ambition of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC). The European Union (EU) could play a crucial role in this process being one of the first Parties to submit its NDC and to call for the integration of the ratchet-up mechanism for ambition in the Paris Agreement. An enhanced EU NDC, therefore, would convey a powerful signal to the other UNFCCC Parties, reinforce the credibility of EU climate policy, and confirm the EU as a global “climate leader”. This paper examines whether and how the EU could enhance its NDC. For this purpose, it proposes some of the most likely and accredited options that could be pursued to achieve this goal. To dig deeper into this issue, the paper presents the results of a survey conducted among experts (scholars, practitioners, negotiators) and non-experts (students), using a mixed methods research design that combines qualitative and quantitative analyses to provide an ex-ante assessment of the selected policy options. The survey’s results show that increasing the EU NDC ambition is perceived as hard but feasible by both groups of interviewees. However, the non-experts’ group considers more options to be feasible showing in general a more optimistic attitude towards enhancing the EU NDC.

Editorial: Governing the EU's climate and energy transition through the 2030 Framework

Editorial: Governing the EU's climate and energy transition through the 2030 Framework

EU climate law sans frontières: The extension of the 2030 Framework to the Energy Community contracting parties

AbstractAs challenging as meeting the 2030 climate and energy targets will be for the European Union (EU), it is the decision to extend the 2030 Framework to the contracting parties of the Energy Community (EnC) which will arguably require a truly Herculean effort. In 2018, the contracting parties agreed to adapt the revised Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Directives, and the Energy Union Governance Regulation. However, the EnC parties face significant obstacles, while the Energy Community has limited compliance mechanisms. This article examines the Energy Community as a hybrid legal space in which the European Commission, EnC Secretariat and contracting parties co‐create legal order. It investigates major challenges to the extension of the 2030 Framework to the Energy Community, including the EnC’s structure and composition, weaknesses in national implementation and a limited dispute resolution regime. The article also reflects on the role of law in the external dimension of EU climate policy.

CO2 Emissions in the Visegrad Group Countries and the European Union Climate Policy

Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges of our time and several policies trying to mitigate this negative phenomenon have been implemented. The reduction of GHG emissions along with the improvement in energy efficiency and the increase in the share of energy consumption from renewable sources also constitute the European Union policy priority. In this context, the aim of this article is to explore factors that affect changes in CO2 emissions in the four EU member states that form the Visegrad Group, during the period 1993–2016. The analysis was conducted using the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) decomposition method and the Kaya identity, which enables the factors contributing most to the CO2 emissions changes to be identified. It also allows the results to be discussed in relation to the European Union’s climate policy. According to the decomposition analysis results, energy intensity and economic growth measured in terms of GDP per capita were the main factors driving changes in CO2 emissions across all countries considered. The emissions decrease resulted mainly from an improvement in energy efficiency and to a lesser extent from the change in the energy mix towards renewables.

Household standards and socio-economic aspects as a factor determining energy consumption in the city

Political or economic attempts to mitigate climate change by increasing fossil fuel prices lead to and an increase in energy poverty, i.e., social effects. The ideal solution would be to combine modernisation activities in terms of energy use in cities with sustainable strategies and redevelopment policies. The article's purpose is to estimate the potential for reducing energy consumption depending on socioeconomic factors (household standard and its location in the city) based on built-in scenarios and searching for the optimal way of conducting development policy at the local level. This assumption enables the implementation of the European Union climate policy. To this aim, modelling based on real and estimated data on the diversity of energy consumption in the structure of a medium-sized city in Europe (Zielona Góra) carried out. While creating scenarios, there used a modelling method based on radial artificial neural networks, which map the input set into the output set by matching many individual approximating functions to setpoints. This approach works well for data whose geolocation is in the city quarters. As a result of the simulations, the minimum and maximum achievable energy saving potential for low-intensity buildings in the quarters was estimated, taking into account the possibilities of investing in renewable energy by individual households. The observations included in the article may be relevant to other regions that are interested in reducing the energy consumption of buildings and pollution emissions from the cities. This is particularly important for the regions of Europe that benefit from the financial support of the European Union (including local development programmes based on financing European priority axes for economic development).

Higher Price, Lower Costs? Minimum Prices in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme

AbstractIn this paper, we examine the introduction of a price floor in an emissions trading system (ETS) when some emissions are regulated outside the ETS. We theoretically characterize the conditions under which a price floor enhances welfare. Using a numerical simulation model of the European Union (EU), we find that moderate minimum prices in the EU ETS can reduce the costs of EU climate policy by up to 30 percent. We also find that, because of tax‐interaction effects, the optimal minimum price in the EU ETS should be about four times higher than the average marginal abatement cost in non‐ETS sectors.

Accomplishing the Sustainable Development Goal 13 - Climate Action and the Role of the European Union

One of the key aspects of Sustainable Development Goals is the difference in awareness of various societies regarding the need to protect the environment and transform economies and societies, so they rely more on renewable energy sources. As an initiative, it should represent a commitment that should be in focus of the international agreements, especially the Paris Climate Treaty. Whilst the Sustainable Development Goals as a totality comprise serious implementation limits, the Paris Climate Treaty should be considered necessary to implement the Sustainable Development Goal 13: Climate Action. Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals would perhaps allow a holistic framework in combating climate change. Nevertheless, for the immediate future, there should be no delays in implementing a certain form of international effort to combat climate change. Therefore, the role of the European Union's climate policy was studied in this article, mainly its effectiveness in the reduction of emissions, as a crucial aspect of implementing one of the crucial Sustainable Development Goals, Goal 13, especially in the context of the Paris Climate Treaty and carbon taxes. The EU sees its vital interest in the fulfilment of the Sustainable Development Goal 13, and in successful action that would enable it to comply with the Paris Climate Treaty. The quantitative analysis in this article, based on an Autoregressive Distributed Lags approach, finds that the most effective way of reducing carbon dioxide emissions in the European Union would be to continue the shift towards more dependency on renewable sources of energy sources while maintaining current or slightly higher levels of taxation on energy consumption. The revenue should be directed towards subsidizing research and development of renewable energy sources.

Leadership and lesson-drawing in the European Union’s multilevel climate governance system

ABSTRACTThe important role that climate leaders and leadership play at different levels of the European Union (EU) multilevel governance system is exemplified. Initially, climate leader states set the pace with ambitious policy measures that were adopted largely on an ad hoc basis. Since the mid-1980s, the EU has developed a multilevel climate governance system that has facilitated leadership and lesson-drawing at all governance levels including the local level. The EU has become a global climate policy leader by example although it had been set up as a ‘leaderless Europe’. The resulting ‘leadership without leader’ paradox cannot be sufficiently explained merely by reference to top-level EU climate policies. Local-level climate innovations and lesson-drawing have increasingly been encouraged by the EU’s multilevel climate governance system which has become more polycentric. The recognition of economic co-benefits of climate policy measures has helped to further the EU’s climate leadership role.

Measuring and explaining the EU’s effect on national climate performance

ABSTRACTTo what extent has the European Union (EU) had a benign or retarding effect on what its member states would have undertaken in the absence of EU climate policies during 2008–2012? A measurement tool for the EU policy’s effect is developed and shows a benign average EU effect with considerable variation across countries. The EU’s policy effectiveness vis-à-vis its member states is explained by the EU’s non-compliance mechanism, the degree of usage of the Kyoto flexible mechanisms, and national pre-Kyoto emission reduction goals. Time-series cross-sectional analyses show that the EU’s non-compliance mechanism has no effect, while the ex-ante plans for using Kyoto flexible mechanisms and/or the ambitious pre-Kyoto emission reduction targets allow member states to escape constraints imposed by EU climate policy.

Integrating carbon dioxide removal into EU climate policy: Prospects for a paradigm shift

Scenarios meeting the Paris Agreement's temperature targets envisage a major and imminent deployment of technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, of which there has been almost no practical implementation to date. Here we explore the political dimensions and policy implications of expectations for “negative emissions” in the European Union (EU), considering its largely successful leadership role in mitigation action and corresponding low‐carbon technology development and deployment. Carbon dioxide removal and especially Bio‐Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage present significant challenges to the EU's dominant climate policy paradigm and low‐carbon policy experience. Considering this challenge, we assess expectations for widespread implementation of carbon dioxide removal in the EU to be unrealistic, and explore possible pathways for its more limited introduction.This article is categorized under: Policy and Governance > Multilevel and Transnational Climate Change Governance The Carbon Economy and Climate Mitigation > Policies, Instruments, Lifestyles, Behavior

Identification of climate policy knowledge needs: a stakeholders consultation approach

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify knowledge gaps on insinuations of possible directions of European Union (EU) and international climate policies.Design/methodology/approachThis study has used participatory approach of highly experienced stakeholders’ engagement, involved directly or indirectly in the process of policymaking. A range of priority issues has been initially identified through desk analysis and key stakeholders have been selected and invited to partake in the process. Preliminary results have been validated through interaction with stakeholders during a series of workshops.FindingsThe results show the identification of a series of sectors, where climate policy is expected to focus in the future and the definition of 11 specific topics upon which knowledge gaps are expected to appear. Results on the identified knowledge needs are analysed and categorized by each prioritized main topic and compared with literature findings. Emphasis is identified to be placed on the topics of renewable energy, EU climate policy and international climate negotiations, which are the most popular ones, followed by energy policy and energy efficiency.Originality/valueA key element of the approach is the consideration of key experts’ feedback on their specific area of expertise, instead of general public engagement, therefore leading to accurate results. Despite the fact that our approach was applied to a specific problem, the overall analysis could provide a framework for supporting applications in various problems in the field of priorities’ identification and even expanding to decision-making problems.

Towards an EU Regulatory Framework for Climate-Smart Agriculture: The Example of Soil Carbon Sequestration

AbstractThis article assesses current and proposed European Union (EU) climate and environmental law, and the legal instruments associated with the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), to see whether soil carbon sequestration is sufficiently promoted as a promising example of ‘climate-smart agriculture’. The assessment shows that current and proposed policies and instruments are inadequate to stimulate large-scale adoption of soil carbon projects across Europe. Given the identified structural flaws, it is likely that this is true for all climate-smart agricultural practices. An alternative approach needs to be developed. Under EU climate policy, agriculture should be included in the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) by allowing regulated industries to buy offsets from the agricultural sector, following the examples set by Australia and others. The second element of a new approach is aimed at the CAP, which needs to be far more focused on the specific requirements of climate change mitigation and adaptation. Yet, such stronger focus does not take away the need to explore new income streams for farmers from offsets under the ETS, as the CAP will never have sufficient funds for the deep and full transition of Europe’s agriculture sector that is needed.

By 2050 the Mitigation Effects of EU Forests Could Nearly Double through Climate Smart Forestry

In July 2016, the European Commission (EC) published a legislative proposal for incorporating greenhouse gas emissions and removals due to Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) into its 2030 Climate and Energy Framework. The Climate and Energy Framework aims at a total emission reduction of 40% by 2030 for all sectors together as part of the Paris Agreement. The LULUCF proposal regulates a “no debit” target for LULUCF (Forests and Agricultural soils), and regulates the accounting of any additional mitigation potential that might be expected of it. We find that the forest share of the LULUCF sector can achieve much more than what is in the regulation now. We elaborate a strategy for unlocking European Union (EU) forests and forest sector potential based on the concept of “climate smart forestry” (CSF). We find that to-date, European policy has not firmly integrated forest potential into the EU climate policy framework. Nor have climate objectives been firmly integrated into those of the forest and forest sector at either the EU or national level. Yet a wide range of measures can be applied to provide positive incentives for more firmly integrating these climate objectives into the forest and forest sector framework. With the right set of incentives in place at EU and Member States levels, we find the current literature supports the view that the EU has the potential to achieve an additional combined mitigation impact through CSF of 441 Mt CO2/year by 2050. In addition, CSF, through reducing and/or removing greenhouse gas emissions, adapting and building forest resilience, and sustainably increasing forest productivity and incomes, tackles multiple policy goals.

From innovation to penetration: Calculating the energy transition time lag for motor vehicles

To meet the targets laid down in the Paris agreement and in the European Union's climate policy documents, road vehicle fleets will have to undergo a massive energy transition in the decades ahead. New vehicles acquired need to be distinctly superior to the old vehicles scrapped, in terms of their energy efficiency and/or carbon intensity.To keep track of the process of vehicle fleet renewal and assess its time scale and potential for energy conservation and greenhouse gas mitigation, stock-flow modeling is a useful tool. The bottom-up stock-flow cohort model ensures coherence between the stock in any given year and the annual flows of scrapping, deregistration, new vehicle acquisitions, and second-hand vehicle import and export. It can be constructed from a few years’ segmented data on the vehicle stocks and their annual mileage.As evidenced by our stock-flow model for Norwegian registered vehicles, it may take 5–25 years, in some cases even longer, before innovations affecting the flow of new vehicles have penetrated similarly into the stock. This energy transition time lag would tend to increase with the speed of innovation and with the target level of penetration, but decrease with the velocity of vehicle turnover.