EUROPEAN UNION CLIMATE AND ENERGY POLICY – CHALLENGES
AND CHAINS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL AREAS
The main objective of the article is to identify the implications of implementing climate and energy policy for rural areas.Due to their quantitative and qualitative potential, rural areas participate to a significant degree in the achievement of the indicative targets resulting from the climatic package. Thanks to the production of biomass and, increasingly often, energy itself during the 2006-2016 period, the share of RES (renewable energy sources) in the production of primary energy grew twofold from 7.8% to 13.9%. Biomass was the main source, but since 2010 the use of wind and sun in the production of energy has been growing rapidly. Based on the analysis, it can be argued that by 2050 most of the energy and renewable energy resources will be produced in agriculture and rural areas. Implementing the commitments stemming from EU climate and energy policy can be an impetus for rural development.