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On the Road to a Green Economy: How Do European Union Countries ‘Do Their Homework’?

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  • Armand Kasztelan

    (Department of Economics and Agribusiness, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Akademicka 13, 20-950 Lublin, Poland)

Abstract

Multidimensional crisis phenomena (financial–economic, environmental and social), plaguing the international community, especially in the last 30 years, have intensified resentment towards traditional models of growth and socio-economic development. The European Commission has placed the idea of a green economy ( GE ) at the heart of the Europe 2020 strategy. This paper presents an assessment of the implementation of the green economy assumptions in EU countries in 2018, taking 2010 as the base year. Using taxonomic methods, a synthetic evaluation index ( GEI—Green Economy Index ) was constructed based on a multi-criterion set of 27 indicators. This paper attempts to answer the following questions: How green are the European economies? What are the main challenges in this context? The average value of the index for the EU countries decreased in the studied years from 0.3423 to 0.3294, which can be interpreted as a slowdown in the greening processes. The key recommendations for the upcoming years include the improvement of energy efficiency indicators, the further increase in the share of renewable energy sources in the energy balance. Moreover, a significant problem continues to be the high percentage of the population at risk of poverty or social exclusion, as well as low CO 2 and resource productivity rates.

Suggested Citation

  • Armand Kasztelan, 2021. "On the Road to a Green Economy: How Do European Union Countries ‘Do Their Homework’?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-16, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:18:p:5941-:d:638709
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    Cited by:

    1. Ryszard Kata & Rafał Pitera, 2023. "Local Authority Investments in the Field of Energy Transition and Their Determinants (on the Example of South-Eastern Poland)," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-20, January.
    2. Katarzyna Chudy-Laskowska & Tomasz Pisula, 2022. "An Analysis of the Use of Energy from Conventional Fossil Fuels and Green Renewable Energy in the Context of the European Union’s Planned Energy Transformation," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-23, October.
    3. Indre Siksnelyte-Butkiene & Tomas Karpavicius & Dalia Streimikiene & Tomas Balezentis, 2022. "The Achievements of Climate Change and Energy Policy in the European Union," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-17, July.
    4. Paweł Dziekański & Piotr Prus & Piotr Sołtyk & Magdalena Wrońska & Florin Imbrea & Laura Smuleac & Raul Pascalau & Karolina Błaszczyk, 2022. "Spatial Disproportions of the Green Economy and the Financial Situation of Polish Voivodeships in 2010–2020," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-27, October.
    5. Rafał Trzaska & Adam Sulich & Michał Organa & Jerzy Niemczyk & Bartosz Jasiński, 2021. "Digitalization Business Strategies in Energy Sector: Solving Problems with Uncertainty under Industry 4.0 Conditions," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-21, November.
    6. Anna Nowak & Armand Kasztelan, 2022. "Economic competitiveness vs. green competitiveness of agriculture in the European Union countries," Oeconomia Copernicana, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 13(2), pages 379-405, June.

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