Estimation and decomposition of Member States' distance to the Effort-Sharing Decision targets in 2020

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to assess the progress of Member States and of the European Union towards those targets by consulting projections of greenhouse gas emissions for 2020; and to attribute the distance between Member States and their targets to the effects of energy demand and fuel mix. The main conclusion is that under current policies and according to projections, the European Union will not meet its non-ETS emissions reduction target, even though a number of Member States will, and the reason is increased energy demand.