Renewable Energy and EU 2020 Target for Energy Efficiency in the Czech Republic and Slovakia

Jacek Brożyna, Wadim Strielkowski, Alena Fomina and Natalya Nikitina
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Jacek Brożyna: Department of Quantitative Methods, The Faculty of Management, Rzeszow University of Technology, Aleja Powstańców Warszawy 10/S, 35-959 Rzeszow, Poland
Alena Fomina: JSC “Central Research Institute of Economy Management and Information Systems Electronics”, Kosmonavta Volkova str. 2, 127299 Moscow, Russian
Natalya Nikitina: Research Institute of Perspective Directions and Technologies, Russian State Social University, Wilhelm Pieck str. 4/1, 129226 Moscow, Russian

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-20

Abstract: Our paper focuses on the renewable energy and EU 2020 target for energy efficiency in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. We study the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in these two EU Member States through the prism of the Europe 2020 strategy and the 3 × 20 climate and energy package and economic growth (represented by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that allows to measure the national dynamics and provide cross-country comparisons) without attributing specific attention to issues such as the electrification of transport or heating, and thence leaving them outside the scope of this paper. Both Czech Republic and Slovakia are two post-Communist countries that still face the consequences of economic transformation and struggle with the optimal management of natural resources. Both countries encountered profound system transformation after 1989 that are apparent in all three measures of sustainable development used in our study. We show that it is unlikely that the planned increase in renewable energy in the Czech Republic and Slovakia will reach its targets, but they might succeed in reducing their energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Our findings show that the energy intensity of Czech and Slovak economies increased in the early 2000s and then stabilized at a level about twice of the EU average. It appears that this value is likely to remain the same in the forthcoming years. However, implementation of GHG emissions in the Czech Republic and Slovakia may be at risk in case the proper energy policy is not maintained. Moreover, our results show how the increase in the share of renewable energy and improvement in energy efficiency go hand-in-hand with mining and exploiting the energy sources that is notorious for the transition economies. We also demonstrate that a proper energy policy is required for effectively reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. There is a need for commitments made by relevant stakeholders and policymakers targeted at achieving sustainable economic growth and energy efficiency. In addition, we demonstrate that there is a need for maintaining a proper balance between economic development and environmental protection, which is a must for the EU sustainable energy development agenda and all its accompanying targets for all its Member States.

Keywords: renewable energy sources; sustainable development; energy efficiency; economic growth; energy consumption; Czech Republic; Slovakia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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