Modelling the trend of energy productivity in the Serbian economy

Abstract

Energy productivity indicates the efficiency of energy use in production. Investment in energy efficient solutions, technologies and practices lead to increased energy productivity. It is often used as a suitable measure to compare the results of economic, energy and climate policies. In 2006, the Republic of Serbia became a member of the Energy Community, thus taking on the obligation to accept the energy acquis of the European Union. By this move, it also accepted the obligation to increase the use of renewables, its final energy consumption and energy services' efficiency. Energy productivity in Serbia has increased by 66.94%, in the period from 2000 to 2019. This growth was primarily driven by the national GDP high growth rate, but not by the reduction of energy consumption. Given the still extremely high Serbian energy intensity levels compared to the European and world average, the aim of this paper is to examine the expected future trends of this indicator. The inverse function econometric model best describes the energy productivity trend in Serbia. The paper concludes that its trend will most likely continue to move upwards, primarily because no significant changes in the Serbian economic and energy policy are expected and because, at least according to official statistics, the country's economy has not been largely affected by the global coronavirus pandemic COVID-19. Since the energy productivity improvement determines the competitiveness and performance of the economy, it is extremely important for Serbia to apply energy efficient technologies, and to implement its further structural changes.

Insights from Poland on the long-run effect of energy productivity on environmental degradation: a Fourier ARDL-based approach

“…The vital point here is to understand how energy productivity and efficient use of energy resources affect carbon emissions and it consequential effect on sustainable economic development. Several empirical studies have been conducted on the impact of energy productivity on environmental degradation (Alola & Joshua, (2020); Atalla & Bean, (2017) ;Cheng, et al, (2021); Lin & Sai, (2022); Yu et al, (2022); Kirikkaleli et al, (2022) ;Madžar, (2022) ;Arafat, et al, (2022); Liu et al, 2022;Raza & Lin, (2022)); Anjanappa & Jongwanich, (2022); Taušová et al, (2022); Yuan, et al, (2022). For further comprehensive review towards achieving the objectives of the study, the paper controls globalization, economic growth, and primary energy consumption since they have been validated to contribute to carbon emissions and environmental degradation debates.…”