9.6 Conclusions
Current EU policies aiming at the sustainable development of energy and society in
general are promoted in close correlation with the theme of climate change. Energy
consumption is the main driver of GHG emissions, whose evolution is being
continually analyzed to assess the justification and timeliness of old and new policies
to mitigate climate change as well as sustainable energy. It has been shown that the
EU28 contributes significantly to global emissions with about 8%, although the
evolution of this percentage is decreasing. It has also been shown to reduce GHG
emissions both aggregate and relative to the size of the human population over the
period 1990–2012, but it should be noted that the EU is still among the top three
most polluted regions globally. In addition, GHG emissions from the energy sector
increased between 1990 and 2012, both as a global contribution and as a total share
of the EU. In this context, the EU legislative framework supports the need for
international commitments to address the climate challenge together with proposing
numerous measures to improve sustainable energy security by addressing the energy
market dimension and technological and energy-related challenges (European Commission 2010b). Recently, Capros et al. (2016) published a report highlighting the
progress made by the EU in energy efficiency through green policies, anticipating a
reduction in energy demand with increasing social welfare by 2050. However, the
possibility of a considerable reduction in energy demand in the near future is
questionable in the light of the need for economic development of the new Member
States, the EU13, and bearing in mind that, for the time being, at EU27 level, the
increase in energy consumption determines economic performance. Under these
circumstances, researchers and governors propose various analyses to estimate the
relationship between GHG emissions, economic growth, energy consumption, and
other indicators of the socio-ecological complex that contribute to the intensification
of climate change, as was done in Chapter 3 of this paper. Thus, this chapter sought
to assess the achievement of the EU and Member States’ targets by analyzing the
targets for energy and climate and designing scenarios for their evolution on the
basis of historical trends. The analysis referred to the European Union to understand
Romania’s international regional context in order to highlight its position and
performance vis-à-vis the rest of the Member States. It also sought to identify the
current vulnerabilities and opportunities of the relationship between energy, emissions, and other components of the EU socio-ecological complex. Firstly, the EU
2020 targets for energy consumption cannot be considered to be sufficiently ambitious in the context of a lack of a 20% drop in each of the two indicators on
consumption compared to 2005, but in fact represents a cumulation of the reduction
in final energy consumption and primary energy consumption. In order to effectively
reduce each type of energy consumption by 20%, the analysis has shown that the EU
should have assumed its 953.4 Mtoe target to reduce final energy consumption to
1086 Mtoe as the current 2020 target and a target of 1370.2 Mtoe of primary energy
consumption compared to 1483 Mtoe as the current 2020 target. For Romania, the
2020 target for CFE should be 19.7 Mtoe compared to 30.3 Mtoe at present, while
154
D.-A. Bodislav et al.
Current EU policies aiming at the sustainable development of energy and society in
general are promoted in close correlation with the theme of climate change. Energy
consumption is the main driver of GHG emissions, whose evolution is being
continually analyzed to assess the justification and timeliness of old and new policies
to mitigate climate change as well as sustainable energy. It has been shown that the
EU28 contributes significantly to global emissions with about 8%, although the
evolution of this percentage is decreasing. It has also been shown to reduce GHG
emissions both aggregate and relative to the size of the human population over the
period 1990–2012, but it should be noted that the EU is still among the top three
most polluted regions globally. In addition, GHG emissions from the energy sector
increased between 1990 and 2012, both as a global contribution and as a total share
of the EU. In this context, the EU legislative framework supports the need for
international commitments to address the climate challenge together with proposing
numerous measures to improve sustainable energy security by addressing the energy
market dimension and technological and energy-related challenges (European Commission 2010b). Recently, Capros et al. (2016) published a report highlighting the
progress made by the EU in energy efficiency through green policies, anticipating a
reduction in energy demand with increasing social welfare by 2050. However, the
possibility of a considerable reduction in energy demand in the near future is
questionable in the light of the need for economic development of the new Member
States, the EU13, and bearing in mind that, for the time being, at EU27 level, the
increase in energy consumption determines economic performance. Under these
circumstances, researchers and governors propose various analyses to estimate the
relationship between GHG emissions, economic growth, energy consumption, and
other indicators of the socio-ecological complex that contribute to the intensification
of climate change, as was done in Chapter 3 of this paper. Thus, this chapter sought
to assess the achievement of the EU and Member States’ targets by analyzing the
targets for energy and climate and designing scenarios for their evolution on the
basis of historical trends. The analysis referred to the European Union to understand
Romania’s international regional context in order to highlight its position and
performance vis-à-vis the rest of the Member States. It also sought to identify the
current vulnerabilities and opportunities of the relationship between energy, emissions, and other components of the EU socio-ecological complex. Firstly, the EU
2020 targets for energy consumption cannot be considered to be sufficiently ambitious in the context of a lack of a 20% drop in each of the two indicators on
consumption compared to 2005, but in fact represents a cumulation of the reduction
in final energy consumption and primary energy consumption. In order to effectively
reduce each type of energy consumption by 20%, the analysis has shown that the EU
should have assumed its 953.4 Mtoe target to reduce final energy consumption to
1086 Mtoe as the current 2020 target and a target of 1370.2 Mtoe of primary energy
consumption compared to 1483 Mtoe as the current 2020 target. For Romania, the
2020 target for CFE should be 19.7 Mtoe compared to 30.3 Mtoe at present, while
154
D.-A. Bodislav et al.