Energies (Oct 2024)
The Green Economy in the Energy Transformation Process—Comparative Analysis of the European Union Member States
Abstract
The article mainly examines spatial diversification of the green economy in EU countries in 2014 and 2021 in the context of the energy transformation process. In the theoretical part of the work, the green economy concept, with reference to the conditions of the green energy, was analyzed. The research procedure used in the article is based on multidimensional comparative analysis. The empirical verification was conducted using green economy indicators that are published periodically by the OECD and Eurostat. Based on 21 indicators, a synthetic green economy index was designed for 27 EU member states. In the selected set of detailed indicators, those related to green energy economy played an important role. This approach allowed for the creation of rankings and comparisons between EU countries in 2014 and 2021, i.e., the implementation period of the Europe 2020 Strategy. In this period, the priority areas of EU development were: the low-carbon economy, including the use of renewable energy sources and improvement of energy efficiency, as well as the introduction of eco-innovation. Green energy should be the basis for the functioning of highly developed countries and socio-economic progress in the case of developing countries. Based on the analysis, a large discrepancy in terms of green economy was observed in the examined countries. Particular attention was paid to disproportions in the area of green energy. The average value of the synthetic measure of the green economy in the EU countries increased in the studied years from 0.4488 to 0.4529, which can be interpreted as a slight acceleration in the greening processes. The added value of the research presented in the paper and its novelty is the analysis of the current patterns of green transformation in EU member states, with particular emphasis on energy factors.
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