The Global Trend Of The European Union - 1260 Words

In today’s world of scarce resources energy efficiency and renewable energy become increasingly important. It is also well-known that the climate-change as a result of high CO2-emissions, among others, can only be stopped or at least slowed down by reducing these emissions. The general global trend therefore should move towards an increasing use of renewable energies while gradually stopping dependence on non-renewable energies, such as coal or oil. Despite trade-offs in terms of a possible rise in energy prices and impacts on security of energy supply, most developed countries have recognized the general need of a change. (Rà ¶pke, 2013) Focusing on the European Union it is striking how the pace at which the 28 member states are†¦show more content†¦While this may sound logical, it is also true that in Poland the government and the state-owned energy producers work closely together with the government receiving dividends from the energy companies. Changing the energy production in favor of potentially less profitable renewable energy sources, seems therefore little appealing. As a result of this policy, in Poland coal has held a share of around 90 % of the gross electricity generation for years. (Ancygier and Caspar, 2014) (Hahn-Fuhr and Dabrowska, 2015) (Ogniewska and den Blanken, 2012) As can be seen in Figure 1.2, in 2011 the share was still 88 % according to the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (2013a). Renewable energies (including biomass, hydro, wind and geothermal energy) only accounted for 7 % according to the same source; according to Eurostat (2015) the share of all renewable energies in the electricity production in Poland even accounted for 8.2 % in that year, but rose to 10.7 % in 2012 and 2013. On the other hand there is Germany – a country trying to be the leader in Europe when it comes to the use of renewable energy sources, the clean and environment-friendly technologies. The German term Energiewende (energy transition) which combines measures to increase energy efficiency and to increase the share of renewable energies has