Assessment of Sustainable Energy Development in European Union—Correspondence Analysis

Janina Jędrzejczak-Gas, Joanna Wyrwa and Anetta Barska ()
Additional contact information
Janina Jędrzejczak-Gas: Institute of Economics and Finance, University of Zielona Góra, ul. Podgórna 50, 65-246 Zielona Góra, Poland
Joanna Wyrwa: Institute of Economics and Finance, University of Zielona Góra, ul. Podgórna 50, 65-246 Zielona Góra, Poland
Anetta Barska: Institute of Economics and Finance, University of Zielona Góra, ul. Podgórna 50, 65-246 Zielona Góra, Poland

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 18, 1-23

Abstract: The energy transition has now been recognised by European Union (EU) member states as a necessary condition for their long-term development. The process of energy transformation is predicated on the simultaneous implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, which present a considerable challenge for modern economies and impose significant restrictions on their functioning. The objective of this article is to evaluate the transformation of EU member states in the field of sustainable energy development and to categorise them based on their alignment with Sustainable Development Goal No. 7 of the United Nations Agenda 2030, concerning affordable and clean energy, in 2015 and 2023. The monitoring of the progress of the energy transition, as well as the examination of its temporal trends and spatial characteristics, can provide a fundamental analysis framework for the strategic development of energy policy in the EU at national and regional levels. An important approach for this endeavour is the indicator-based assessment of trends. The correspondence analysis proposed in this study and the hierarchical classification, which was intended to help link categories in a two-dimensional space, have the potential to facilitate a more comprehensive assessment of the degree to which EU member states are developing sustainable energy. The study results confirmed significant heterogeneity among the EU-27 countries in terms of energy sustainability. In both 2015 and 2023, the groups of EU countries that achieved a certain level of energy sustainability were identified. However, it should be noted that the composition of each group changed in 2023 compared to 2015. Moreover, no group of EU countries was without its own particular strengths and weaknesses. The results provide opportunities for their interpretation, both in terms of analysing changes in individual indicators and in terms of the global assessment of sustainable development in individual countries. The adoption of an original research approach, divergent from previous studies, for the new timeframe contributes to the resolution of the research gap in empirical studies concerning the classification of EU member states in terms of SDG7 implementation.

Keywords: sustainable energy development; comparative analysis; European Union member states (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: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/18/4886/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/18/4886/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:18:p:4886-:d:1749359

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Cassie Shen

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().