Renewable energy has been suggested as the primary approach for decarbonizing the energy system and decoupling energy consumption from greenhouse gas emissions, both in the energy literature and in practice. The European Union has acknowledged the challenge and put renewable energy transition high on the policy agenda with the latest ambition of being a carbon-neutral economy by 2050. On the other hand, Western Balkan countries are still dependent on fossil fuels as one of their primary energy mix sources. The pledge about the European future has mostly driven the renewable energy transition ambition in the Western Balkan countries, including Serbia. Moreover, signing the Energy Community Treaty provided institutional and legal tools to both Contracting Parties and the European Union to build the common energy market. These processes inspired many authors in the last two decades to analyse technical, economic, market and environmental aspects of renewables. However, the governance and planning, even though identified as challenging, have been side-lined from the analysis. This paper aims to overview the selected renewable energy transition literature and legislation to analyse the main legal and policy milestones reached so far, as well as ambition in Serbia. It also discusses the lessons learned from the related literature from energy governance and planning prism. To do so, it firstly provides a literature review of the main concepts of the renewable energy transition. Moreover, the historical analysis of renewable energy policy and legal developments in the European Union, the Energy Community and Serbia are in the second part's focus. Finally, the discussion part summarizes lessons learned from the literature for future energy governance and planning with the perspective of the energy planning process, policy evaluation, and education and administrative capacity. The article concludes by emphasizing the importance of taking the current literature findings as prospective steps to follow towards accelerated energy governance and planning.
Tracing the Steps of Norway's Carbon Footprint: Lessons Learned from Norway and the European Union Concerning the Regulation of Carbon Emissions
