ESEP prepress abstract - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/esep00215
Energy productivity as a part of the green growth agenda in the EU countries
Tomasz Grodzicki, Mateusz Jankiewicz*
ABSTRACT: Green growth aims to achieve economic growth while preventing environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, and unsustainable use of natural resources. Green growth decouples the effects of economic activities from environmental activities. Thus, it seeks to make investing in the environment an engine of economic growth. Energy is one of the most critical inputs in all economic activities. It is an essential driver of economic development, and energy supply and efficiency of its use are crucial for green growth. Conventional sources of energy cause an increase in both greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and regional air pollution. They also influence water quality and land use. There is a call for increased use of renewable energy sources to tackle climate change and energy security problems. Thus, countries worldwide should progress towards more energy-efficient technologies and provide consumers with more energy-efficient goods and services. This paper aims to assess the EU countries' performance in energy productivity by using a synthetic measure (based on Hellwig’s taxonomic measure of development) of the following indicators: energy productivity [in GDP per unit of TPES], energy intensity [in TPES per capita], total primary energy supply [index, 2000=100], renewable energy supply [in % total energy supply], renewable electricity [in % total electricity generation]. The results show that although there was progress in energy productivity in the EU countries on average, there are still some disparities between the EU economies. Albeit the EU has adopted a common policy towards boosting energy efficiency by implementing the European Green Deal, some countries are still lagging behind in this aspect. On average, the Western EU economies have a higher level of energy productivity; however, the pace of an increase in energy productivity is higher in the Central and Eastern EU countries, which may indicate a convergence process of energy productivity in the EU economies.