Studying the Level of Sustainable Energy Development of the European Union Countries and Their Similarity Based on the Economic and Demographic Potential

Abstract

The concept of sustainable economic development takes into account economic, social and environmental aspects and strives to achieve balance between them. One of the basic areas where it is required to revalue the current views on sustainable development is energy. The growing public awareness of environmental protection forces changes in this industry. Despite the global nature of this problem, its solution is perceived differently in various regions of the world. The unquestionable leader in introducing the idea of sustainable development economy is the European Union, where the energy sector is of key importance for the effectiveness of this process. In order to assess the sustainable energy development of the European Union countries, studies were conducted based on 13 selected indicators characterizing this sector in terms of energy, economy and environment. In order to assess the specificity of the European Union countries, these indicators were additionally compared to the gross domestic product value and the number of inhabitants of individual countries. For these cases, multi-criteria analyses were carried out using the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method. It allowed the authors to rank the European Union countries in terms of their adaptation to a sustainable energy economy. Based on the determined values of indicators versus the gross domestic product and the number of inhabitants of the countries in question, these countries were also divided into similar groups with the use of the Kohonen artificial neural networks. These groups can pursue a common energy policy in the field of sustainable development. The aim of the research was to present a new approach to the assessment of sustainable energy development of the European Union countries. The extensive ratio analysis (13 indicators of the sustainable energy development), including the economic and demographic potential of individual countries, and the use of modern tools made it possible to acquire new knowledge in the field of sustainable energy development in the European Union countries. The results should be utilized for more effective sustainable energy development of the European Union countries.

Green Energies, Employment, and Institutional Quality: Some Evidence for the OECD

“…The findings confirm the relevance of the energy policies, in line with our hypotheses and other recent contributions concerning the realization of the environmental sustainability targets in developed countries [1][2][3] .…”

“…The analysis of energy policies is assuming a key role for the achievement of sustainable production in developed countries [1][2][3]. Indeed, the impact of energy policies on employment can be important for increasing competitiveness from two relevant perspectives.…”

CO2 Intensities and Primary Energy Factors in the Future European Electricity System

“…For example, delving deeper into the differences between production and consumption perspective values, or between average and marginal values-exploring the dynamics across countries and scenarios in greater detail. Another possibility is for the calculated conversion factors to be used in future analyses in which the sustainable economic development of different European countries is being estimated and compared-building further upon the work presented in [74]. Furthermore, the possibility could be explored of soft-linking with an investment-optimization model which considers the entire energy sector (including the building stock, transport, and industrial sectors).…”

Evolution Process of Liquefied Natural Gas from Stratification to Rollover in Tanks of Coastal Engineering with the Influence of Baffle Structure

“…Natural gas is an important energy carrier in the post-petroleum era. Because of its large reserves, less polluting, and efficient conversion, natural gas has become the main pillar of the world's energy [1,2]. In order to facilitate storage and long-distance transportation like petroleum, natural gas is usually liquefied to form liquefied natural gas (LNG) at atmospheric pressure at −162 • C after removing water, carbon dioxide and heavy hydrocarbons using adsorption and separation.…”