Demand for energy and resources has been growing as a result of population growth and increased consumption to the point where all the scientific evidence shows we are bumping up against fundamental planetary boundaries on which our civilizations depend. In new EASAC report trends that lead calls for “transformative” change, with a focus on some of the systemic and structural failures that are driving our current unsustainable development has been discussed.

The European Union aspires to pursue an ambitious climate policy. The energy sector is a key tool to ensure success in this area. At the same time, excessively ambitious targets can be a serious problem for individual member states. The aim of the article is to analyze the possibilities available to the Polish energy sector in the context of the assumed EU climate neutrality goals by 2050.

The analyzed research problem concerns, in particular, two areas of strategic importance for Poland: the coal sector and the renewable energy sources sector. The role of the former should be significantly reduced in the coming decades, while the position of the latter should be substantially strengthened. The juxtaposition of these challenges with the Polish economic, social and techno- logical realities is the main subject of analysis in this text. The method of system analysis with elements of a decision-making approach will be used. This will allow for an effective analysis and review at the research level of the most important problems and challenges faced by Poland in light of the necessary adjustments to be made in order to achieve the priorities assumed by the European Union.

The hypothesis of the article is that Poland is able to effectively meet European climate targets, although the implementation of this challenge requires decisive action on the part of the government, as well as an adequate response from investors and society. To this end, appropriate actions must be undertaken at both a strategic and operational level.

This paper summarizes the arguments and counterarguments within the scientific discussion

on developing the free-carbon economy in Ukraine. The main purpose of the paper is elaborating

the energy efficiency profile of Ukraine to assure the development of the free-carbon economy. To

achieve this purpose, the authors carried out an investigation in the following logical sequence.

Firstly, the bibliometric analysis of 4674 of the most cited articles indexed by the Scopus database

was conducted. The obtained findings indicated that the green economy transformation depended

on the main factors such as economic performance, corruption, macroeconomic stability, social

welfare, shadow economy etc. As a result, the forecast of the final energy consumption to 2030

was performed. The methodological tool of this research is based on the Autoregressive Integrated

Moving Average (ARIMA) model. This study involved data of the Visegrad countries (Poland, the

Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic and Hungary) and Ukraine from 2000 to 2018. The base of

data is Eurostat, the EU statistical service. Based on the obtained results of analyzing the green

economic transformation in the Visegrad countries and Ukraine, the authors intimated the existence

of the significant energy-efficient gap in Ukraine compared to the analyzed countries. In reliance on

the experience of the Visegrad countries and the forecast results, the authors provided the main recommendations

for providing the green transforming in Ukraine. The authors highlighted that the obtained

results of this paper were considered to be the base for future investigations considering the influence

of endogenous and exogenous factors on developing the free-carbon economy in Ukraine.

Europejski Zielony Ład jest strategią, która ma za zadanie doprowadzić do osiągnię-cia neutralności klimatycznej Europy do 2050 r. Strategia ta składa się z kilku inicjatyw, m.in: Europejskiego prawa o klimacie, Europejskiego Paktu Klimatycznego, strategii Unii Europejskiej dotyczącej adaptacji do zmiany klimatu, strategii “od pola do stołu” oraz planu zredukowania emisji gazów cieplarnianych o 55% do roku 2030. Zamierze-niem autorki niniejszego artykułu jest przedstawienie celów i struktury Europejskiego Zielonego Ładu ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem działań zaplanowanych w ramach gospodarki morskiej. Sektor morski ma odegrać kluczową rolę w ograniczaniu zapo-trzebowania na zasoby gruntowe oraz przeciwdziałaniu zmianie klimatu poprzez zwięk-szenie i poprawę wykorzystania zasobów wodnych i morskich.

Renewable energy aims at reducing greenhouse emissions, supplying the growing demand for electricity, and diminishing consumption of fossil fuels – these are the basic elements of the New Green Deal, heading towards carbon neutrality. However, renewables have negative impacts on the electricity network’s operation, leading to reduced power system stability.

This paper discusses the impact of the European Green Deal policy on the clean energy transformation in the European Union, focusing on the generation of electricity reaching a significant milestone for the EU in 2020 – renewable energy sources for the first time in history surpassing combined fossil fuels in the generation of electrical energy. This achievement, although partially influenced by the exceptional circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic and the electricity demand shock, is primarily an effect of the Clean Energy for all Europeans Package implementing the European Green Deal strategy designed to position the EU as a global leader in the green transformation, leading by example and turning climate challenges into a growth opportunity, and in doing so presenting an optimistic policy perspective for a global transformation towards a 100% renewable energy world, thus supporting mitigation of the global-warming threats by significantly cutting greenhouse-gas emissions. With the immediate effects of the 2018 recast Renewable Energy Directive (2018/2001/EU) and other related clean-energy policies under the umbrella of the European Green Deal, coal and lignite electric generation has fallen in 2020 by as much as 22% (87 TWh) and the nuclear generation has dropped by 11% (79 TWh), with natural gas to a much lesser extent, yet still noting an annual drop of 3%, while renewables grew, surpassing the combined fossil fuels electricity output in the whole of the EU. This is an impressive result confirmed in late 2021 and a hallmark of the European Green Deal initial success, the sustainability of which is yet to be assessed in the coming years, especially in view of the recent international situation of major destabilization. In this context, it should be added that although the newest 2022 Global Energy Review report by the IEA confirmed in 2021, the highest global CO ₂emission level in history (following the post -pandemic economic rebound and also due to the gas-price crisis of late 2021 causing gas-to-coal shifts in electricity-mix, which in the EU, resulted in a 7% relative annual emissions increase), Europe’s emission level has remained in a diminishing trend following the European achievements of 2020, with an overall CO ₂ emissions decrease of 2.4% in comparison with the level of 2019. Most likely, however, the 2021 gas-price crisis was only a mere prelude to a much more robust long- -term perturbation that will be expectedly due to the war in Ukraine and the necessary sanctions policy, especially impacting the energy market and probably further hampering the green-transition process jointly with other economic factors.

W artykule przedstawiono główne elementy europejskiej polityki transportowej oraz zagadnienia dominujące w debacie publicznej w ostatniej dekadzie, tj. w latach 2010- 2020. Przeanalizowano w szczególności wyzwania dla europejskiego transportu wynikające z konieczności przeciwdziałania zmianom klimatycznym oraz dążenia do zapewnienia wysokiego poziomu ochrony środowiska i bezpieczeństwa przy jednoczesnym uwzględnieniu postępującej rewolucji technologicznej. Zaprezentowano główne założenia Europejskiego Zielonego Ładu służącego osiągnięciu w Unii Europejskiej neutralności klimatycznej do 2050 r. Na przykładzie transportu morskiego opisano, w jaki sposób poszczególne sektory transportu zostają włączone w realizację unijnych celów klimatycznych.

A transition fuel on the path from coal to hydrogen.