The Impact of Energy Development of the European Union Euro Area Countries on CO2 Emissions Level

Abstract

In the last years, the fact of anthropogenic impact on climate change taking place in the world has become indisputable. Both countries and international organizations have taken steps to reduce GHG emissions, move to a low-carbon economy and implement solutions that reduce human impact on the environment. The EU, by intensifying its activities, has also prepared a strategy known as the European Green Deal. In implementing the EGD, it is important to analyze the impact of energy development in energy-intensive sectors of the economy (industry, transport, agriculture, services and other cores) on atmospheric pollution. Energy development is understood as the energy consumption percentage from all its consumption. In the article, complex correlation–regression analysis was implemented, which included not only energy development impact on the CO2 emissions level (i.e., production-based CO2 efficiency), but also its impact on economic growth. The research was conducted for the EU euro area countries. It was determined that the strongest positive correlation is to be found in the transport sector, which implies that with an increase in energy consumption in that sector, production-based CO2 efficiency is increasing. On the other hand, this increment in efficiency was relatively small and was achieved with the rapid growth of the energy consumption. The implemented research confirmed that the transportation sector is the one which is polluting the atmosphere the most with CO2 emissions in the Eurozone. The results of the implemented research could be used for the formation of targeted measures for the green growth strategy implementation, and also for ECB and EIB to support “green” projects.