IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v149y2021ics0301421520308016.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Driving factors of differences in primary energy intensities of 14 European countries

Author

Listed:
  • Guevara, Zeus
  • Henriques, SofiaTeives
  • Sousa, Tânia

Abstract

The EU is committed to become climate-neutral by 2050 while keeping its prosperity intact. To align the bloc towards this goal, it is fundamental to understand the spatial differences in energy performance among its members. The present study aims to identify the main drivers of primary energy intensity differences among fourteen European countries (i.e., the EU15 without Luxemburg) during the period 2000–2010. To do so, we apply for the first time the multi-factor energy input-output model to spatial structural decomposition analysis. The results show that differences in the industrial direct energy intensity and in the mix of final energy demand were the driving factors of primary energy intensity differences among countries, while, remarkably, structural differences in both the energy sector and in the rest of the economy were not as relevant. This implies that deepening industrial and residential efficiency policies should be a key objective in addition to the current policy efforts to deploy renewables in the energy sector. In addition, we show that the proposed approach helps overcome the main shortcomings of conventional spatial decomposition approaches, e.g., the inconsistent accounting of energy conversion processes in the economy; and its detailed results can be translated into more effective policy making.

Suggested Citation

  • Guevara, Zeus & Henriques, SofiaTeives & Sousa, Tânia, 2021. "Driving factors of differences in primary energy intensities of 14 European countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:149:y:2021:i:c:s0301421520308016
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2020.112090
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421520308016
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2020.112090?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zeus Guevara & Oscar Córdoba & Edith X. M. García & Rafael Bouchain, 2017. "The Status and Evolution of Energy Supply and Use in Mexico Prior to the 2014 Energy Reform: An Input-Output Approach †," Economies, MDPI, vol. 5(1), pages 1-17, March.
    2. Wang, H. & Ang, B.W. & Su, Bin, 2017. "Multiplicative structural decomposition analysis of energy and emission intensities: Some methodological issues," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 47-63.
    3. Wang, Zhenguo & Su, Bin & Xie, Rui & Long, Haiyu, 2020. "China’s aggregate embodied CO2 emission intensity from 2007 to 2012: A multi-region multiplicative structural decomposition analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    4. Alcantara, Vicent & Roca, Jordi, 1995. "Energy and CO2 emissions in Spain : Methodology of analysis and some results for 1980-1990," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 221-230, July.
    5. Gustavo A. Marrero & Francisco J. Ramos-Real, 2013. "Activity Sectors and Energy Intensity: Decomposition Analysis and Policy Implications for European Countries (1991–2005)," Energies, MDPI, vol. 6(5), pages 1-20, May.
    6. Erik Dietzenbacher & Bart Los, 1998. "Structural Decomposition Techniques: Sense and Sensitivity," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(4), pages 307-324.
    7. Henriques, Sofia Teives & Kander, Astrid, 2010. "The modest environmental relief resulting from the transition to a service economy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 271-282, December.
    8. Bullard, Clark W. & Herendeen, Robert A., 1975. "The energy cost of goods and services," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 268-278, December.
    9. MacKillop, Andrew, 1989. "Economie de l'energie : by J. Percebois Editions Economica, Paris, 1989, 688 pp, Ff185," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 532-533, October.
    10. Daniel Croner and Ivan Frankovic, 2018. "A Structural Decomposition Analysis of Global and National Energy Intensity Trends," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    11. Mulder, Peter & de Groot, Henri L.F., 2012. "Structural change and convergence of energy intensity across OECD countries, 1970–2005," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 1910-1921.
    12. Xia, Yan & Fan, Ying & Yang, Cuihong, 2015. "Assessing the impact of foreign content in China’s exports on the carbon outsourcing hypothesis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 296-307.
    13. Hoekstra, Rutger & van den Bergh, Jeroen C. J. M., 2003. "Comparing structural decomposition analysis and index," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 39-64, January.
    14. Percebois, Jacques, 1979. "Is the concept of energy intensity meaningful?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(3), pages 148-155, July.
    15. Guevara, Zeus & Domingos, Tiago, 2017. "Three-level decoupling of energy use in Portugal 1995–2010," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 134-142.
    16. Bin Su & B. W. Ang, 2012. "Structural Decomposition Analysis Applied To Energy And Emissions: Aggregation Issues," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(3), pages 299-317, March.
    17. Glen Peters & Robbie Andrew & James Lennox, 2011. "Constructing An Environmentally-Extended Multi-Regional Input-Output Table Using The Gtap Database," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(2), pages 131-152.
    18. Fan, Ying & Xia, Yan, 2012. "Exploring energy consumption and demand in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 23-30.
    19. Rutger Hoekstra & Jeroen van den Bergh, 2002. "Structural Decomposition Analysis of Physical Flows in the Economy," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 23(3), pages 357-378, November.
    20. Su, Bin & Ang, B.W., 2014. "Attribution of changes in the generalized Fisher index with application to embodied emission studies," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 778-786.
    21. Voigt, Sebastian & De Cian, Enrica & Schymura, Michael & Verdolini, Elena, 2014. "Energy intensity developments in 40 major economies: Structural change or technology improvement?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 47-62.
    22. Mark De Haan, 2001. "A Structural Decomposition Analysis of Pollution in the Netherlands," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(2), pages 181-196.
    23. Yan, Junna & Su, Bin, 2020. "Spatial differences in energy performance among four municipalities of China: From both the aggregate and final demand perspectives," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    24. Zeus Guevara & João F. D. Rodrigues, 2016. "Structural transitions and energy use: a decomposition analysis of Portugal 1995--2010," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(2), pages 202-223, June.
    25. Liu, Na & Ang, B.W., 2007. "Factors shaping aggregate energy intensity trend for industry: Energy intensity versus product mix," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 609-635, July.
    26. Su, Bin & Ang, B.W., 2015. "Multiplicative decomposition of aggregate carbon intensity change using input–output analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 13-20.
    27. Su, Bin & Ang, B.W., 2017. "Multiplicative structural decomposition analysis of aggregate embodied energy and emission intensities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 137-147.
    28. Peter Mulder, 2015. "International Specialization, Structural Change and the Evolution of Manufacturing Energy Intensity in OECD Countries," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3).
    29. Bertoldi, Paolo & Mosconi, Rocco, 2020. "Do energy efficiency policies save energy? A new approach based on energy policy indicators (in the EU Member States)," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    30. Nielsen, Hana & Warde, Paul & Kander, Astrid, 2018. "East versus West: Energy intensity in coal-rich Europe, 1800–2000," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 75-83.
    31. Su, Bin & Ang, B.W. & Li, Yingzhu, 2019. "Structural path and decomposition analysis of aggregate embodied energy and emission intensities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 345-360.
    32. Su, Bin & Ang, B.W., 2012. "Structural decomposition analysis applied to energy and emissions: Some methodological developments," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 177-188.
    33. Alcantara, Vicent & Duarte, Rosa, 2004. "Comparison of energy intensities in European Union countries. Results of a structural decomposition analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 177-189, January.
    34. Casler, Stephen & Wilbur, Suzanne, 1984. "Energy input-output analysis : A simple guide," Resources and Energy, Elsevier, vol. 6(2), pages 187-201, June.
    35. Mendiluce, María & Pérez-Arriaga, Ignacio & Ocaña, Carlos, 2010. "Comparison of the evolution of energy intensity in Spain and in the EU15. Why is Spain different?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 639-645, January.
    36. Ang, B.W. & Xu, X.Y. & Su, Bin, 2015. "Multi-country comparisons of energy performance: The index decomposition analysis approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 68-76.
    37. Ang, B.W. & Zhang, F.Q., 2000. "A survey of index decomposition analysis in energy and environmental studies," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 25(12), pages 1149-1176.
    38. Su, Bin & Ang, B.W., 2013. "Input–output analysis of CO2 emissions embodied in trade: Competitive versus non-competitive imports," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 83-87.
    39. Haiyan Zhang & Michael L. Lahr, 2014. "Can The Carbonizing Dragon Be Domesticated? Insights From A Decomposition Of Energy Consumption And Intensity In China, 1987--2007," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(2), pages 119-140, June.
    40. Wang, H. & Ang, B.W. & Su, Bin, 2017. "Assessing drivers of economy-wide energy use and emissions: IDA versus SDA," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 585-599.
    41. Zeus Guevara & Edmundo Molina-Pérez & Edith X. M. García & Vanessa Pérez-Cirera, 2019. "Energy and CO2 emission relationships in the NAFTA trading bloc: a multi-regional multi-factor energy input–output approach," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(2), pages 178-205, April.
    42. Bagheri, Mehdi & Guevara, Zeus & Alikarami, Mohammad & Kennedy, Christopher A. & Doluweera, Ganesh, 2018. "Green growth planning: A multi-factor energy input-output analysis of the Canadian economy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 708-720.
    43. Guevara, Zeus & Domingos, Tiago, 2017. "The multi-factor energy input–output model," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 261-269.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Fernández-Amador, Octavio & Francois, Joseph F. & Oberdabernig, Doris A. & Tomberger, Patrick, 2023. "Energy footprints and the international trade network: A new dataset. Is the European Union doing it better?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(PA).
    2. Yongyu Qu & Hongzhen Ni & Jing Zhao & Genfa Chen & Changshun Liu, 2022. "Quantitative Analysis of the Impact of Ecological Industry and Ecological Investment on the Economy: A Case Study of Beijing, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-19, August.
    3. Tomasz Rokicki & Radosław Jadczak & Adam Kucharski & Piotr Bórawski & Aneta Bełdycka-Bórawska & András Szeberényi & Aleksandra Perkowska, 2022. "Changes in Energy Consumption and Energy Intensity in EU Countries as a Result of the COVID-19 Pandemic by Sector and Area Economy," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-26, August.
    4. Xuemei Jia & Qing Liu & Jiahao Feng & Yuru Li & Lijun Zhang, 2023. "The Induced Effects of Carbon Emissions for China’s Industry Digital Transformation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-20, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zeus Guevara & Oscar Córdoba & Edith X. M. García & Rafael Bouchain, 2017. "The Status and Evolution of Energy Supply and Use in Mexico Prior to the 2014 Energy Reform: An Input-Output Approach †," Economies, MDPI, vol. 5(1), pages 1-17, March.
    2. Yan, Junna & Su, Bin, 2020. "What drive the changes in China's energy consumption and intensity during 12th Five-Year Plan period?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    3. Guevara, Zeus & Domingos, Tiago, 2017. "Three-level decoupling of energy use in Portugal 1995–2010," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 134-142.
    4. Su, Bin & Ang, B.W. & Li, Yingzhu, 2019. "Structural path and decomposition analysis of aggregate embodied energy and emission intensities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 345-360.
    5. Wang, Zhenguo & Su, Bin & Xie, Rui & Long, Haiyu, 2020. "China’s aggregate embodied CO2 emission intensity from 2007 to 2012: A multi-region multiplicative structural decomposition analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    6. Wang, H. & Ang, B.W. & Su, Bin, 2017. "Assessing drivers of economy-wide energy use and emissions: IDA versus SDA," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 585-599.
    7. Wang, H. & Ang, B.W. & Su, Bin, 2017. "Multiplicative structural decomposition analysis of energy and emission intensities: Some methodological issues," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 47-63.
    8. Zhang, Xiaomei & Su, Bin & Yang, Jun & Cong, Jianhui, 2022. "Analysis of Shanxi Province's energy consumption and intensity using input-output framework (2002–2017)," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 250(C).
    9. Zhu, Bangzhu & Su, Bin & Li, Yingzhu & Ng, Tsan Sheng, 2020. "Embodied energy and intensity in China’s (normal and processing) exports and their driving forces, 2005-2015," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    10. Wang, H. & Ang, B.W. & Su, Bin, 2017. "A Multi-region Structural Decomposition Analysis of Global CO2 Emission Intensity," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 163-176.
    11. Su, Bin & Ang, B.W., 2017. "Multiplicative structural decomposition analysis of aggregate embodied energy and emission intensities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 137-147.
    12. Román-Collado, Rocío & Colinet, Maria José, 2018. "Is energy efficiency a driver or an inhibitor of energy consumption changes in Spain? Two decomposition approaches," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 409-417.
    13. Su, Bin & Ang, B.W., 2022. "Improved granularity in input-output analysis of embodied energy and emissions: The use of monthly data," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    14. Su, Bin & Ang, B.W., 2020. "Demand contributors and driving factors of Singapore’s aggregate carbon intensities," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    15. Zhang, Zengkai & Zhu, Kunfu & Hewings, Geoffrey J.D., 2017. "A multi-regional input–output analysis of the pollution haven hypothesis from the perspective of global production fragmentation," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 13-23.
    16. Zhou, Xiaoyong & Zhou, Dequn & Wang, Qunwei, 2018. "How does information and communication technology affect China's energy intensity? A three-tier structural decomposition analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 748-759.
    17. Yan, Junna & Su, Bin, 2020. "Spatial differences in energy performance among four municipalities of China: From both the aggregate and final demand perspectives," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    18. Bagheri, Mehdi & Guevara, Zeus & Alikarami, Mohammad & Kennedy, Christopher A. & Doluweera, Ganesh, 2018. "Green growth planning: A multi-factor energy input-output analysis of the Canadian economy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 708-720.
    19. Wang, Qunwei & Hang, Ye & Su, Bin & Zhou, Peng, 2018. "Contributions to sector-level carbon intensity change: An integrated decomposition analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 12-25.
    20. Christos T. Papadas & Nikolaos Vlassis, 2018. "A structural decomposition analysis of the pollution terms of trade," Journal of Environmental Economics and Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(1), pages 57-68, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:149:y:2021:i:c:s0301421520308016. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.