Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
EBSCON 19 International Congress of Energy, Economy and Security, İstanbul, Türkiye, 6 - 07 Nisan 2019, ss.50
: Over recent decades many European countries have been at the forefront of global renewable energy
agendas with the challenge of increasing the use of renewable energy sources to fulfil their growing needs
while at the same time grappling with the issue of decreasing greenhouse gas emissions to reach the target of
40% reduction by 2030 (IRENA). Despite the deployment of renewable energy programs, most European
countries remain highly dependent on imported fossil fuels, in 2014, oil accounted for almost 87.4% of total
European countries imports, followed by natural gas (67.2%) and solid fuels such as coal (45.6%)
(Bioenergy Europe, statistical report, 2017). Given this European energy picture, it is highly expected that
there will be strong interactions between renewable energy consumption, fossil fuel consumption and
emissions. However, it is important to clearly understand how these schemes will interact in order to prepare
a successful energy transition program. Therefore, it is the aim of this research to provide readers better
understanding of how renewable energy, fossil fuel and emissions interacts in Europe. Specifically, the aim
of this study is to analyze the importance of renewable and nonrenewable energy components in the carbon
abatement policy in 19 selected European countries over the period 1990-2014. It also seeks to explore the
key drivers of renewable energy consumption in Europe. Our main findings can be summarized as: (i) fossil
fuel consumption increases emissions while renewable energy consumption decreases emissions in Europe,
(ii) ecological footprint is a main driver of renewable energy consumption in Europe, while carbon
emissions, oil consumption and coal consumption exert a negative influence on renewable energy
consumption. Eventually, this paper suggests some policy proposals related to the increasing consumption of
renewable energy and energy security in Europe