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Economics
The energy transition is a subject of significant interest in the countries of the European Union, and the involvement of public authorities is remarkable. Unlike previous energy transitions, this process is politically driven, the efforts of public authorities being secondary to the actions of companies whose guidelines are based on stability at the European level through strategies and directives.
- energy security
- energy transition
- sustainable development
1. Introduction
Mankind is experimenting with a new energy transition due to challenges caused by climate change and the limitations of natural resources. The need to promote the low-carbon economy has determined paradigm shifts at the macro- and micro-economic levels, international institutions and public authorities in all countries being increasingly concerned with the promotion of complex policies to reduce the harmful effect of human activity on the natural habitat [1,2,3,4,5,6].
This transition process generates numerous economic, social, technical, and even political challenges, with renewable energy being the newest asset in the energy mix [7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14] and drawing investment into energy [15], as well as having important social and environmental implications for energy policy modelling [16].
Unlike other energy transitions, this transition, which emphasizes the use of renewable energy, is a politically driven process, with considerable efforts being made at the international level to adopt agreements that promote carbon neutrality [17,18,19,20,21,22]. The European Union stands out in this complex effort to support the energy transition, important steps being taken by creating the Energy Union in 2015, by promoting an energy independence strategy and stimulating the twin transition, considering the growing importance of digitization, including in the energy sector [17,23,24,25,26,27,28]. In addition to the efforts by public authorities to create the legal framework, paradigm changes are also being registered at the level of companies increasingly involved in energy transition, aiming at reducing consumption, increasing energy efficiency, orientation towards renewable energy sources (RES), and to promote concrete actions of social responsibility that focus on consumers and local communities [29,30,31,32,33].
An overview of some factors that build the energy security of the European space is necessary for understanding the decisions that are contemporaneous within the current context generated by the military conflict in Ukraine [10,34,35]. The big challenge is to maintain and even accelerate the pace on the path of the energy transition. Anyway, it is difficult to develop scenarios for green growth [36]. The energy crisis which erupted as a result of the conflict in Ukraine emphasized the problems related to energy security and the need for diversification of alternative resources [37].
In 2022, in the context of the hybrid warfare in Ukraine, the EU expanded sanctions against Russia [38]. Compared to previous conflicts, Russia has disrupted the global economic framework. In February 2022, the sanctions were in the financial, energy, and transport domains. In March, prohibitions were placed on investments in Russia’s energy sector. In April 2022, bans on imports of coal and other solid fossil fuels from Russia were adopted. In June 2022, prohibitions on imports of oil and refined petroleum products from Russia were instituted, with some exceptions for pipeline oil. In July 2022, the period for energy and financial sanctions was extended until January 2023. In December 2022, an agreement was reached between the member states regarding Russian oil price ceiling.
Since December 2022, the list of products that cannot be imported from Russia to the EU includes, among others, oil and refined-petroleum products (from February 2023), with some exceptions, and coal and other solid fossil fuels. At the same time, goods that cannot be exported to Russia from the EU include specific products and technologies for oil refining, as well as the equipment, technology, and services of the energy industry. The EU has closed its ports to Russia’s entire merchant fleet, but the measure does not affect ships carrying energy, pharmaceuticals, medical, agricultural and food products, humanitarian aid, coal, nuclear fuel, and other goods necessary for the operation of civilian nuclear capabilities.
The target of the REPowerEU plan is to achieve the recovery from the economic crisis generated by COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to reduce the European Union’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels. The new plan considers the use of nuclear energy and fossil fuels (oil, coal) by the EU countries as temporary solutions, which would not endanger the achievement of the European Green Pact.
2. Energy Security or Green Transition
Energy is a fundamental requirement for the functioning of human society, and its availability and affordability are critical to economic and social development. However, the energy sector is undergoing significant changes, as countries seek to move towards a more sustainable energy system that reduces carbon emissions while meeting growing energy demand. The transition to a sustainable energy system presents challenges and opportunities for energy security, energy poverty, and sustainable development. The objective of this literature review is to analyze the existing literature on energy security, energy transition, sustainable development, just transition, energy dependence, and energy poverty using bibliometric analysis to provide insights and identify research gaps.
Co-authorship analysis revealed that the majority of the articles were authored by researchers from the United States, China, and Europe. The United States had the highest number of publications, with 2022 articles, followed by China and Europe. The analysis of the citation network revealed that the most influential articles in this field were focused on energy security, energy transition, and sustainable development. The analysis of keywords showed that the most frequently used keywords in this field were “energy”, “sustainability”, “climate change”, “renewable energy”, and “policy”.
In terms of energy security, the concept of energy security is evolving. There is a shift towards a more comprehensive approach that takes into account not only security of supply, but also the environmental, social, and economic aspects of energy. The need for greater international cooperation to address energy security issues, particularly in the areas of energy trade, investment, and infrastructure development, has also been identified in the literature.
With regard to energy system transformation, the transition to a sustainable energy system is a complex process that requires a comprehensive approach, taking into account technological, economic, social, and environmental factors. The importance of renewable energy technologies in the transition to a sustainable energy system has been highlighted, as well as the need for policies and regulations to support the development and deployment of these technologies.
The concept of sustainable development has shown that the energy sector has a key role to play in the achievement of the goals of sustainable development. The need to transition to a sustainable energy system that reduces carbon emissions and promotes economic and social development has been identified in the literature. The literature has also highlighted the importance of accessing energy for sustainable development, particularly in developing countries.
For a just transition, the literature review showed that the transition to a sustainable energy system can have a significant social and economic impact, particularly on workers in the fossil fuel industry. It highlights the need for policies and programs to support a just transition, ensuring that fossil fuel workers are not left behind and have opportunities for retraining and employment in the renewable energy sector.
The literature review on energy dependence has shown that the reduction in dependence on imported energy sources can be an improvement in energy security and an aid to economic development. In order to reduce dependence on imported energy, the literature has highlighted the importance of developing domestic energy sources and increasing energy efficiency.
Energy poverty is a critical issue that has gained attention in recent years, both in academia and in policy-making. It refers to the lack of access to modern energy services, which affects people’s quality of life, health, education, and income. Bibliometric analysis has been used extensively to understand trends, research gaps, and emerging issues in the field of energy poverty.
Some research gaps in the area of energy poverty are also highlighted by the bibliometric analysis. For example, most studies have focused on the environmental and economic impacts of energy poverty. Less attention has been paid to the social and health impacts. Research on the effectiveness of policies and technologies to address energy poverty is also lacking.
The transition to renewable energy from fossil fuels is a complex process supported by public authorities in all countries, as well as by international organizations, due to the globalization generated by the liberalization of the movement of goods, people, and capital, as well as the need to ensure energy security [39,40,41,42]. In Romania, the most important percentage of the energy mix belongs to hydroelectricity [33,43]. The winter of 2022–2023 will be the challenge that Europe will have to face, with gas storage still insufficiently full, holding a share of renewable energy far from the level that would be needed, as well as an incipient transport infrastructure and use of liquefied natural gas [44]. Thus, for the EU, the data show that coal-based electricity represented 19% of the total in the last three months of 2021 amid growing tensions between Ukraine and Russia, culminating with the conflict that broke out in February 2022 [45] signaled two years ago that diminishing fossil fuel supplies could radically reorient international financial flows and recreate the geo-economics of energy production and use. In addition to the particularly complex technical challenges, the energy transition also causes social concerns on the part of the authorities considering that the increase in prices and fluctuations in the energy supply affect the population, especially vulnerable consumers who face growing energy poverty [46,47,48,49,50,51]. In addition, the renunciation of the exploitation of certain energy resources has various consequences for local communities where the closure of farms and the cessation or reduction in the activity of some companies demonstrates a chain reaction, not only in the business ecosystem but also for the local workforce which faces the specter of unemployment. However, there is a chance for communities heavily affected by energy transition to benefit through the implementation of the Just Transition Mechanism [52].
In order to analyze the most relevant concepts in the field, a bibliometric analysis was carried out, using the academic platform Web of Science as the source of scientific articles, analyzing the topicality of the article given by energy security, energy transition, sustainable development, just transition, energy dependence, and energy poverty. Thus, the content of the 500 most cited articles related to renewable energy transition on Web of Science was explored to highlight the structure of the scientific domain using content analysis, inspecting the most frequent words and the relationship between words. The empirical analysis showed that the most frequent words in the full content of the selected articles, apart from the keywords used, are shown in Figure 1, including “energy”.
Figure 1. Network visualization in the bibliometric analysis related to chosen keywords related to ideas of this paper (driven by the authors).
The transition to renewable energy is the path to sustainability. Energy sustainability is related to “energy”, “dependency”, “sustainability”, “projects”, “processes”, “efficiency”, and “education” (Figure 2).
Figure 2. The bibliographic interconnections among chosen keywords related to the ideas of this paper (driven by the authors).
The literature on energy security, energy transition, sustainable development, just transition, and energy poverty revealed some interesting insights from the bibliometric analysis. The analysis showed that the most productive authors were from the US, China, and the UK, and that the most common research collaborations were between authors from the US and China. This suggests that there is a high level of interest in these topics on the part of researchers from these countries.
The keyword co-occurrence analysis showed that the most common themes were energy security, renewables, climate change, energy efficiency, energy poverty, and energy policy. These suggest that these are the most important topics in the field of energy research. The analysis also showed that energy supply, energy demand, energy independence, and energy diversification were the most common keywords related to energy security. This suggests that a key concern for researchers working on energy security is to ensure a reliable and diversified energy supply.
This entry is adapted from the peer-reviewed paper 10.3390/en16093849
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