Is an ageing population impacting energy use in the European Union? Drivers, lifestyles, and consumption patterns of elderly households

2022 ◽  
Vol 85 ◽  
pp. 102443
Author(s):  
Vera Pais-Magalhães ◽  
Victor Moutinho ◽  
Margarita Robaina
Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (15) ◽  
pp. 4593
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Cheba ◽  
Iwona Bąk

The main purpose of the paper is to present a proposal to measure the relationships between Goal 7 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and one of the areas considered in the green growth concept: environmental production efficiency. Both of these areas illustrate the relationship between the natural environment and the economy, emphasizing transformations in the field of energy use. Selected taxonomic methods, TOPSIS, and multicriteria taxonomy, were applied to study the relationships between the two areas. The results of the EU countries classification showed a variety of countries’ development pathways within a single economic community. Despite continued attempts to equalize the development levels between European Union countries in many strategic areas, they remain highly diversified. That is also true for the areas analyzed in the paper, which is a disturbing situation, indicating that both strategies might not correlate in all respects. Further research into the relationships linking the remaining dimensions of both strategies is required.


2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-123
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Biernat ◽  
Paulina Luiza Dziołak ◽  
Izabela Samson-Bręk

This article presents waste management in the world and in some highly developed countries in the European Union such as Germany, Netherlands, and Sweden. The article presented also waste management systems in these countries, with special attention to the processes of energy use of waste (Waste to Energy - WTE) in existing plants.


2013 ◽  
pp. 143-146
Author(s):  
Orsolya Nagy

The use of renewable energies has a long past, even though its share of the total energy use is rather low in European terms. However, the tendencies are definitely favourable which is further strengthened by the dedication of the European Union to sustainable development and combat against climate change. The European Union is on the right track in achieving its goal which is to be able to cover 20% its energy need from renewable energy resources by 2020. The increased use of wind, solar, water, tidal, geothermal and biomass energy will reduce the energy import dependence of the European Union and it will stimulate innovation.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dejan Brkić

The Russian natural gas industry is the world's largest producer and transporter of natural gas. This paper identifies the benefits for Serbia as transient country to European Union for Russian natural gas through South Stream gas-line in the current political context of implementation of gas agreement. On the other hand, according to the Agreement on Stabilization and Integration to European Union, Serbia is obligatory to implement reforms in energy sector and its energy policy must be in accordance with the European Union policy. Republic of Serbia has produced and consumed natural gas domestically since 1952, but has always been net importer. Strategy of Energy Development in Serbia and especially, National Action Plan for the gasification on the territory of Republic of Serbia dedicated special attention to gas economy development in respect with expected contribution in efficient energy use and environmental policy protection in the country.


2020 ◽  
pp. 709-731
Author(s):  
Ryszard Kata ◽  
Magdalena Cyrek ◽  
Piotr Cyrek

Changes in the consumption model are inherent in the processes of socio-economic development the indicator of which is the enrichment of the population. Such changes include the emergence of new proportions in the consumption of particular categories of goods and services, and, according to the regularities observed by Engel, lower the share of expenditure on a broadly understood category of food. Increasing incomes are also linked to changes in the internal structure of food consumption. This study is to assess the changes in the level and structure of food expenses resulting from the enrichment of the European Union (EU) societies. The study covered the co-occurrence of differences in food consumption with households' income differences in the EU countries. The analyses presented in the study relate to the period after the EU enlargement in 2004 and are based on the Eurostat data. The research allows for a positive verification of the thesis that the higher the incomes, the more balanced the structure of food expenses. In more affluent economies, the consumption of a more diversified basket of goods is observed. This finding is supported by the high negative correlation between the structure concentration ratio for food expenditure and the households' income level. In addition, the identification of country clusters based on consumption expenditure broken down into food categories makes it possible to confirm the thesis that there are income differences between economies with different consumption models. It is confirmed by the variance analysis concerning income level for countries in three groups: the South Europe with the highest food expenses, the Central and Eastern Europe with the most limited spending and the lowest income, and the affluent "old" EU members with high expenses on luxuries consumed for social reasons. However, the analyses presented here do not allow for validation of the thesis that food consumption patterns among the EU countries become similar, but rather point to the predominance of the consumption divergence processes, which occur despite the declining income differences. This claim is based on the observation of increasing average Euclidian distance between food expenses in the EU countries in 2005 and 2015. Nevertheless, some signs of shift towards Mediterranean consumption patterns may be found for many societies.


Author(s):  
Marta Skiba ◽  
Natalia Rzeszowska

Climate change and sustainable energy use is one of the five long-term objectives of the European Union. The first stage of the activities involving the implementation of this task is to reduce energy consumption of buildings to a minimum by 2020 and, in the case of public buildings by 2019. The purpose of this article is a search for the optimal way of bringing the energy performance of an existing school to a level that enables implementation of the objectives of the European Union energy policy. An analysis of the current condition of the existing school building has been carried out and options of its deep thermal upgrading has been proposed to adjust each parameter the energy performance to current guidelines specified in the technical conditions. One of the possible ways to improve the energy efficiency of the school is the use of renewable energy sources as a means of improving energy characteristics in terms of primary energy PE, the other one - optimization of renovation spending.


2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (30 (1)) ◽  
pp. 268-275
Author(s):  
Sanda Anca

In the context of an ageing population, the aim of this study is to analyze how the consumption expenditure of the age group 50 plus affected the GDP growth rate during the period 2005-2019, at the level of the European Union countries. Using spatial econometrics, we study the convergence process of both the consumption expenditure of the 50 plus age group and the GDP. Furthermore, we analyze the relationship between the two variables and its evolution in time. We conclude that there is a bidirectional relationship between the studied variables: an increase in the growth rate of the 50 plus age consumption significantly and positively impacts the GDP growth rate and vice versa. At the level of Western European states where the share of 50 plus population is the highest, the impact on GDP growth rate is stronger. The results are relevant for further identifying possible economic opportunities created by the ageing population while supporting the European Union cohesion policy through the convergence process aimed at reaching an overall harmonious development within the member states and regions.


2009 ◽  
pp. 73-79
Author(s):  
József Mikita

strong educational and scientific knowledge basie is one of Europe's traditional key assets that has made it possible for our continent to become world class in several research fields. Despite these great achievements, the position of the European research and technological development (RTD) potential is currently being challenged by a rapidly changing global competition, including the two main rivals, the US and Japan. The European Union (EU) is behind these countries as regards research and innovation output. Moreover, European research is faced with theimplications of globalisation of markets and industries, digitalisation and new technologies, as well as a need to address societal issues such as an ageing population or climate change.At the same time, the European Union (EU) is facing the uneven distribution of RTD capacities and excellence within its own borders, especially the EU12 countries are lagging behind in thisrespect.In order to meet this twofold challenge the EU has to step up its efforts for the creation of a legitimate "European Research Area" that will make the EU more competitive on the international scene, and also encourage the less developed EU member states to invest more and better into research and innovation.


Author(s):  
Bartłomiej Bajan ◽  
Natalia Genstwa ◽  
Luboš Smutka

The purpose of the paper was to analyse changes in food consumption patterns in the European Union (EU) countries and link these patterns with food production and imports. The two research questions posed by the authors were as follows i): are the structures of the consumption, production and importation of food becoming more similar or more diverse among EU countries, and ii) are changes in food consumption patterns caused by changes in domestic production, or has food been imported to a greater extent from abroad. The study investigated countries which that have been continuously keeping relevant statistics since 1961. The food consumption structures recorded in the years 1961–1969 and 2010–2017 were compared among these countries. Following this, the countries were grouped into subsets using the criterion of greatest similarity in terms of food consumption structures. The same was done in the case of their food production and imports. The study found that countries were becoming increasingly similar in terms of their consumption patterns. An opposite situation occurred concerning food production. In the case of food imports, structural diversity between countries decreased. It follows that changes in food consumption patterns mainly occurred through the adjustment of imports.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document