Evaluating environmental sustainability in the European Union

• Author: Duguleana, L. - Duguleana, C.
• Position: Dept. of Management and Economic Informatics, Transilvania University of Brasov - Dept. of Finances, Accounting and Economics, Transilvania University of Brasov
• Pages: 89-94

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov

Series V: Economic Sciences • Vol. 6 (55) No. 2 - 2013

EVALUATING ENVIRONMENTAL

SUSTAINABILITY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

L. DUGULEAN

1 C. DUGULEAN2

Abstract: The paper refers to the environmental dimension of sustainable

development in the European Union, emphasized by the Europe 2020 Strategy,

presenting the dynamics of greenhouse gas emissions between 19 90-2011 in

the Europea n Union and in Romania, a nd also the forecasting until 2015. The

modern analysis of decoupling between two indicators: GDP and the

greenhouse gas emissions wa s used for showing the way of these r elative

changes dur ing 2005-2011 in the EU countries.

Key words: environmental sustainability, annual avera ge dynamic rate,

GDP, green house gas emissions, decoupling analysis.

1. Introduction

Sustainable development, established in

the Europe 2020 Strategy, has economic,

social, cultural and environmental

dimensions.

The environmental dimensions are

characterized by the indicators: greenhouse

gas emissions, share of renewable energy

sources in final energy consumption and

energy efficiency.

The headlines indicators for

environmental and climate changes

established by the Europe 2020 Strategy

are: greenhouse gas emissions should be

reduced by 20% compared to 1990, the

share of renewable energy sources in final

energy consumption should be increased to

20% and energy efficiency should improve

by 20%. The paper establishes the extent to

which these targets could be attained

considering the evolution of these

indicators until the most recent year for

which there are recorded data, i.e. 2011.

The relative positions of the EU countries

with reference to the environmental

1 Dept. of Management and Economic Informatics, Transilvania University of Braov.

2 Dept. of Finances, Accounting and Economics, Transilvania University of Braov.

dimensions which define their processes of

sustainable development will be based on

the data from EUROSTAT.

2. Greenhouse Gas Emissions -Dynamics

in the European Union between 1990

and 2011

The United Nations Framework

Convention on Climate Change is an

international treaty about global warming

which was agreed in 1992 at the Earth

Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

This treaty was followed in 1997 by the

Kyoto Protocol, which established the legal

problems for reducing the greenhouse gas

emissions, which conduct to global

warming and climate changes. The Kyoto

Protocol contains a basket of six

greenhouse gases with effects on climate

change. Based on the Global Warming

Potential (GWP) of carbon dioxide as a base

unit, the measures for Global Warming

Potential (GWP) for other gases were

established as relative warming effects. The

greenhouse gas emissions are expressed in