Sustainability Development: Assessment of Selected Indicators of Sustainable Energy Development in Poland and in Selected EU Member States Prior to COVID-19 and Following the Third Wave of COVID-19

Abstract

An important question in the literature on climate change and sustainable development is the relationship between countries’ economic growth, household electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and related economic restrictions, sustainable economic growth remains at the forefront of the global development agenda. However, given the strong relationship between the ever increasing electricity consumption and greenhouse gas CO2 emissions, an increasing number of scientists have been questioning the feasibility of the planned emission reduction. In my research, I strove to determine whether there exists a relationship between the change in the structure of electricity consumption of households in selected EU Member States (15 countries), the impact of innovation, changes in electricity prices and economic growth, and CO2 emissions in 2007–2019, prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and following its third wave (2021). The aim of the article is to propose a synthetic index to assess the degree of sustainable energy development (SISED) in selected EU countries. Multiobjective decision analysis (MODA) was applied in order to assess the sustainable energy development of the selected European countries. Research findings may contribute to both literature and practice if they are applied by individual EU countries in the process of formulating directions aimed at achieving sustainable energy development.