The Use of the Hierarchical Method to Group the Countries of the European Union According to their Energy and Climate Policies Adopted on the Basis of Directives of the European Parliament

Subject and purpose of work

The European Union’s energy policy focuses mainly on three areas: reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the energy sector by increasing the use of RES, reducing emissions of harmful pollutants, and increasing the efficiency of the electricity used.

Sustainable energy use, on the other hand, is clearly associated with an increased use of renewable energy sources, which ensures energy security, as well as diversification of energy supplies that sustain and improve the quality of the environment.

The purpose of the paper is to present the diversity of the countries of the European Union in terms of the actions they take in the field of energy and climate policy resulting from the European Union directives.

Materials and methods

Based on the goals of energy policy presented in the EU directives a number of indicators were selected in order to describe the actions taken by EU member states. After a substantive and statistical verification, 6 variables were left. The use of the Ward’s method made it possible to create groups of countries that are similar in terms of their energy and climate policies.

Conclusions

The most favorable situation in terms of the effects of the climate and energy policy can be observed in the current leaders, that is in Sweden and Finland as well as in Estonia. Central European countries, mainly Poland, have high-emission economies, accompanied by low investment in modern environmentally friendly technologies. This is manifested, among others, in high concentrations of particulate matter, which contributes to poor air quality, categories in which Poland has some of the worst results in the entire EU.