Volume 20, Issue 2-4, June 2016
ENERGY DEPENDENCY AND SUSTAINABLE REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE BALTIC STATES – A REVIEW
Authors: Dalia Štreimikienė, Wadim Strielkowski, Yuriy Bilan, Ignas Mikalauskas
Abstract: Energy security is one of the most important indicators of sustainable regional development and “green” growth in implementation of EU strategy Europe 2020. It can provide the harmonized devel opment and cohesion of “old” and “new” EU member states. Our paper conducts a comparative study of energy dependency and energy security indicators in the Baltic States. The Baltic countries achieved enormous progress in the use of renewable energy sources and energy effciency since their EU accession in 2004. The increase of renewable energy capacities in Baltic States also contributed to the reduction of energy intensity and carbon intensity of economy and energy import dependency. Our results show that amongst all three states, it was Estonia that had achieved the best results in increased use of renewables and energy effciency improvements and had distinguished itself with the best indicators and economic and regional policy outcomes.
Keywords: sustainable energy, economic growth, regional development, energy security, Baltic States
Article info: 79-87
Received: February 24, 2016 | Revised: May 9, 2016 | Accepted: June 2, 2016