IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/rensus/v78y2017icp401-413.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A comparison of environmental and energetic performance of European countries: A sustainability index

Author

Listed:
  • Cucchiella, Federica
  • D’Adamo, Idiano
  • Gastaldi, Massimo
  • Koh, SC Lenny
  • Rosa, Paolo

Abstract

Recently, European countries agreed on a new 2030-pact establishing challenging levels for a set of climate and energy indexes in order to achieve a more competitive, safe and sustainable energy system. In order to evaluate current sustainability performances of European countries from the environmental and energetic perspectives, this research proposes a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) that, starting from both Eurostat data and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), allows a direct comparison of nations. To this aim, multiple indexes are taken into account (e.g. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, Government expenditures for environmental protection, Recycled and reused waste from electric and electronic equipments (WEEEs), Recycled and reused waste from end-of-life vehicles (ELVs), Recycled materials from Municipal Solid Wastes (MSWs), Share of renewable energy (RE) in electricity, Share of RE in transport, Share of RE in heating and cooling and Primary energy consumption). This assessment model provides a sustainability value for each European country and the related ranking with the European average. Results show as, even nowadays, twelve out of twenty-eight European countries have a value greater than the European average in 2013. Top four nations (Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Austria) have high indexes of sustainability and Sweden is the best country from both the environmental and energetic perspectives.

Suggested Citation

  • Cucchiella, Federica & D’Adamo, Idiano & Gastaldi, Massimo & Koh, SC Lenny & Rosa, Paolo, 2017. "A comparison of environmental and energetic performance of European countries: A sustainability index," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 401-413.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:78:y:2017:i:c:p:401-413
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2017.04.077
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032117305804
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.rser.2017.04.077?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. Ghosh, Soumya & Chakraborty, Tilottama & Saha, Satyabrata & Majumder, Mrinmoy & Pal, Manish, 2016. "Development of the location suitability index for wave energy production by ANN and MCDM techniques," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 1017-1028.
    2. Scarlat, Nicolae & Dallemand, Jean-François & Monforti-Ferrario, Fabio & Banja, Manjola & Motola, Vincenzo, 2015. "Renewable energy policy framework and bioenergy contribution in the European Union – An overview from National Renewable Energy Action Plans and Progress Reports," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 969-985.
    3. Cucchiella, Federica & D’Adamo, Idiano & Lenny Koh, S.C. & Rosa, Paolo, 2015. "Recycling of WEEEs: An economic assessment of present and future e-waste streams," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 263-272.
    4. Valdez-Vazquez, Idania & del Rosario Sánchez Gastelum, Carolina & Escalante, Ana E., 2017. "Proposal for a sustainability evaluation framework for bioenergy production systems using the MESMIS methodology," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 68(P1), pages 360-369.
    5. Strantzali, Eleni & Aravossis, Konstantinos, 2016. "Decision making in renewable energy investments: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 885-898.
    6. Iddrisu, Insah & Bhattacharyya, Subhes C., 2015. "Sustainable Energy Development Index: A multi-dimensional indicator for measuring sustainable energy development," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 513-530.
    7. Liu, Xinyu & Liu, Gengyuan & Yang, Zhifeng & Chen, Bin & Ulgiati, Sergio, 2016. "Comparing national environmental and economic performances through emergy sustainability indicators: Moving environmental ethics beyond anthropocentrism toward ecocentrism," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 1532-1542.
    8. Elena Arce, María & Saavedra, Ángeles & Míguez, José L. & Granada, Enrique, 2015. "The use of grey-based methods in multi-criteria decision analysis for the evaluation of sustainable energy systems: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 924-932.
    9. Troldborg, Mads & Heslop, Simon & Hough, Rupert L., 2014. "Assessing the sustainability of renewable energy technologies using multi-criteria analysis: Suitability of approach for national-scale assessments and associated uncertainties," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 1173-1184.
    10. Ekholm, Tommi & Karvosenoja, Niko & Tissari, Jarkko & Sokka, Laura & Kupiainen, Kaarle & Sippula, Olli & Savolahti, Mikko & Jokiniemi, Jorma & Savolainen, Ilkka, 2014. "A multi-criteria analysis of climate, health and acidification impacts due to greenhouse gases and air pollution—The case of household-level heating technologies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 499-509.
    11. Siche, J.R. & Agostinho, F. & Ortega, E. & Romeiro, A., 2008. "Sustainability of nations by indices: Comparative study between environmental sustainability index, ecological footprint and the emergy performance indices," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(4), pages 628-637, July.
    12. Najibi, Fatemeh & Niknam, Taher & Kavousi-Fard, Abdollah, 2016. "Optimal stochastic management of renewable MG (micro-grids) considering electro-thermal model of PV (photovoltaic)," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 444-459.
    13. van der Schoor, Tineke & Scholtens, Bert, 2015. "Power to the people: Local community initiatives and the transition to sustainable energy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 666-675.
    14. Rojas-Zerpa, Juan C. & Yusta, Jose M., 2015. "Application of multicriteria decision methods for electric supply planning in rural and remote areas," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 557-571.
    15. Haitao Liu & Yu Ji & Huaidong Zhuang & Hongbin Wu, 2015. "Multi-Objective Dynamic Economic Dispatch of Microgrid Systems Including Vehicle-to-Grid," Energies, MDPI, vol. 8(5), pages 1-20, May.
    16. Shmelev, Stanislav E. & van den Bergh, Jeroen C.J.M., 2016. "Optimal diversity of renewable energy alternatives under multiple criteria: An application to the UK," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 679-691.
    17. Abbas Mardani & Ahmad Jusoh & Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas & Fausto Cavallaro & Zainab Khalifah, 2015. "Sustainable and Renewable Energy: An Overview of the Application of Multiple Criteria Decision Making Techniques and Approaches," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(10), pages 1-38, October.
    18. J. Javid, Roxana & Nejat, Ali & Hayhoe, Katharine, 2014. "Selection of CO2 mitigation strategies for road transportation in the United States using a multi-criteria approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 960-972.
    19. Kumar, Ravi & Singal, S.K., 2015. "Penstock material selection in small hydropower plants using MADM methods," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 240-255.
    20. Milutinović, Biljana & Stefanović, Gordana & Dassisti, Michele & Marković, Danijel & Vučković, Goran, 2014. "Multi-criteria analysis as a tool for sustainability assessment of a waste management model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 190-201.
    21. Koo, Choongwan & Hong, Taehoon & Lee, Minhyun & Kim, Jimin, 2016. "An integrated multi-objective optimization model for determining the optimal solution in implementing the rooftop photovoltaic system," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 822-837.
    22. Kim, Jimin & Hong, Taehoon & Jeong, Jaemin & Lee, Myeonghwi & Koo, Choongwan & Lee, Minhyun & Ji, Changyoon & Jeong, Jaewook, 2016. "An integrated multi-objective optimization model for determining the optimal solution in the solar thermal energy system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 416-426.
    23. Kylili, Angeliki & Fokaides, Paris A. & Lopez Jimenez, Petra Amparo, 2016. "Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) approach in buildings renovation for the sustainability of the built environment: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 906-915.
    24. Patrik Thollander & Jenny Palm, 2015. "Industrial Energy Management Decision Making for Improved Energy Efficiency—Strategic System Perspectives and Situated Action in Combination," Energies, MDPI, vol. 8(6), pages 1-10, June.
    25. Federica Cucchiella & Idiano D’Adamo & Paolo Rosa, 2015. "Industrial Photovoltaic Systems: An Economic Analysis in Non-Subsidized Electricity Markets," Energies, MDPI, vol. 8(11), pages 1-16, November.
    26. Cucchiella, Federica & D’Adamo, Idiano & Lenny Koh, S.C. & Rosa, Paolo, 2016. "A profitability assessment of European recycling processes treating printed circuit boards from waste electrical and electronic equipments," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 749-760.
    27. Pohekar, S. D. & Ramachandran, M., 2004. "Application of multi-criteria decision making to sustainable energy planning--A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 8(4), pages 365-381, August.
    28. Uyan, Mevlut, 2013. "GIS-based solar farms site selection using analytic hierarchy process (AHP) in Karapinar region, Konya/Turkey," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 11-17.
    29. Liu, Gang, 2014. "Development of a general sustainability indicator for renewable energy systems: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 611-621.
    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. Indre Siksnelyte & Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas, 2019. "Achievements of the European Union Countries in Seeking a Sustainable Electricity Sector," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-16, June.
    2. Seker, Sukran & Kahraman, Cengiz, 2021. "Socio-economic evaluation model for sustainable solar PV panels using a novel integrated MCDM methodology: A case in Turkey," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    3. D'Adamo, Idiano & Falcone, Pasquale Marcello & Morone, Piergiuseppe, 2020. "A New Socio-economic Indicator to Measure the Performance of Bioeconomy Sectors in Europe," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    4. Helena Fidlerová & Augustín Stareček & Natália Vraňaková & Cagri Bulut & Michael Keaney, 2022. "Sustainable Entrepreneurship for Business Opportunity Recognition: Analysis of an Awareness Questionnaire among Organisations," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-15, January.
    5. Ateba, Benedict Belobo & Jurgens Prinsloo, Johannes, 2019. "Strategic management for electricity supply sustainability in South Africa," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 92-103.
    6. Giulia Caruso & Stefano Antonio Gattone, 2019. "Waste Management Analysis in Developing Countries through Unsupervised Classification of Mixed Data," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(6), pages 1-15, June.
    7. Agnieszka Wałachowska & Aranka Ignasiak-Szulc, 2021. "Comparison of Renewable Energy Sources in ‘New’ EU Member States in the Context of National Energy Transformations," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-17, November.
    8. Buchmayr, A. & Taelman, S.E. & Thomassen, G. & Verhofstadt, E. & Van Ootegem, L. & Dewulf, J., 2023. "A distance-to-sustainability-target approach for indicator aggregation and its application for the comparison of wind energy alternatives," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    9. Wątróbski, Jarosław & Bączkiewicz, Aleksandra & Sałabun, Wojciech, 2022. "New multi-criteria method for evaluation of sustainable RES management," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 324(C).
    10. Indre Siksnelyte & Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas & Dalia Streimikiene & Deepak Sharma, 2018. "An Overview of Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Methods in Dealing with Sustainable Energy Development Issues," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-21, October.
    11. Fernando E. Garcia-Muiña & Rocío González-Sánchez & Anna Maria Ferrari & Lucrezia Volpi & Martina Pini & Cristina Siligardi & Davide Settembre-Blundo, 2019. "Identifying the Equilibrium Point between Sustainability Goals and Circular Economy Practices in an Industry 4.0 Manufacturing Context Using Eco-Design," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(8), pages 1-22, August.
    12. Vincent Wretling & Berit Balfors, 2021. "Are Local Authorities Building Their Capacity to Plan for Reduced Climate Impact? A Longitudinal Analysis of Swedish Comprehensive Plans," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-20, June.
    13. D'Adamo, Idiano & Falcone, Pasquale Marcello & Imbert, Enrica & Morone, Piergiuseppe, 2020. "A Socio-economic Indicator for EoL Strategies for Bio-based Products," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    14. D'Adamo, Idiano & Gastaldi, Massimo & Rosa, Paolo, 2020. "Recycling of end-of-life vehicles: Assessing trends and performances in Europe," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    15. Bompard, E.F. & Corgnati, S.P. & Grosso, D. & Huang, T. & Mietti, G. & Profumo, F., 2022. "Multidimensional assessment of the energy sustainability and carbon pricing impacts along the Belt and Road Initiative," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).

    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. Mardani, Abbas & Zavadskas, Edmundas Kazimieras & Khalifah, Zainab & Zakuan, Norhayati & Jusoh, Ahmad & Nor, Khalil Md & Khoshnoudi, Masoumeh, 2017. "A review of multi-criteria decision-making applications to solve energy management problems: Two decades from 1995 to 2015," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 216-256.
    2. Bortoluzzi, Mirian & Correia de Souza, Celso & Furlan, Marcelo, 2021. "Bibliometric analysis of renewable energy types using key performance indicators and multicriteria decision models," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    3. Sellak, Hamza & Ouhbi, Brahim & Frikh, Bouchra & Palomares, Iván, 2017. "Towards next-generation energy planning decision-making: An expert-based framework for intelligent decision support," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1544-1577.
    4. Indre Siksnelyte & Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas & Dalia Streimikiene & Deepak Sharma, 2018. "An Overview of Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Methods in Dealing with Sustainable Energy Development Issues," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-21, October.
    5. Osman Taylan & Rami Alamoudi & Mohammad Kabli & Alawi AlJifri & Fares Ramzi & Enrique Herrera-Viedma, 2020. "Assessment of Energy Systems Using Extended Fuzzy AHP, Fuzzy VIKOR, and TOPSIS Approaches to Manage Non-Cooperative Opinions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-27, March.
    6. Diaz-Balteiro, L & González-Pachón, J. & Romero, C., 2017. "Measuring systems sustainability with multi-criteria methods: A critical review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 258(2), pages 607-616.
    7. Chia-Nan Wang & Hector Tibo & Duy Hung Duong, 2020. "Renewable Energy Utilization Analysis of Highly and Newly Industrialized Countries Using an Undesirable Output Model," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-21, May.
    8. Milad Kolagar & Seyed Mohammad Hassan Hosseini & Ramin Felegari & Parviz Fattahi, 2020. "Policy-making for renewable energy sources in search of sustainable development: a hybrid DEA-FBWM approach," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 40(4), pages 485-509, December.
    9. Karunathilake, Hirushie & Hewage, Kasun & Mérida, Walter & Sadiq, Rehan, 2019. "Renewable energy selection for net-zero energy communities: Life cycle based decision making under uncertainty," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 558-573.
    10. Urošević, Branka Gvozdenac & Marinović, Budimirka, 2021. "Ranking construction of small hydro power plants using multi-criteria decision analysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 1174-1183.
    11. Rekha Guchhait & Biswajit Sarkar, 2023. "Increasing Growth of Renewable Energy: A State of Art," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-29, March.
    12. Paweł Ziemba, 2019. "Inter-Criteria Dependencies-Based Decision Support in the Sustainable wind Energy Management," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-29, February.
    13. Jamal, Taskin & Urmee, Tania & Shafiullah, G.M., 2020. "Planning of off-grid power supply systems in remote areas using multi-criteria decision analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).
    14. Małgorzata Trojanowska & Krzysztof Nęcka, 2020. "Selection of the Multiple-Criiater Decision-Making Method for Evaluation of Sustainable Energy Development: A Case Study of Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-24, November.
    15. Kumar, Abhishek & Sah, Bikash & Singh, Arvind R. & Deng, Yan & He, Xiangning & Kumar, Praveen & Bansal, R.C., 2017. "A review of multi criteria decision making (MCDM) towards sustainable renewable energy development," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 596-609.
    16. Hasan, M.A. & Chapman, R. & Frame, D.J., 2020. "Acceptability of transport emissions reduction policies: A multi-criteria analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    17. Zhang, Ling & Zhou, Peng & Newton, Sidney & Fang, Jian-xin & Zhou, De-qun & Zhang, Lu-ping, 2015. "Evaluating clean energy alternatives for Jiangsu, China: An improved multi-criteria decision making method," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 90(P1), pages 953-964.
    18. Sitorus, Fernando & Brito-Parada, Pablo R., 2020. "A multiple criteria decision making method to weight the sustainability criteria of renewable energy technologies under uncertainty," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    19. Shao, Meng & Han, Zhixin & Sun, Jinwei & Xiao, Chengsi & Zhang, Shulei & Zhao, Yuanxu, 2020. "A review of multi-criteria decision making applications for renewable energy site selection," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 377-403.
    20. Bilgili, Faik & Zarali, Fulya & Ilgün, Miraç Fatih & Dumrul, Cüneyt & Dumrul, Yasemin, 2022. "The evaluation of renewable energy alternatives for sustainable development in Turkey using ‌intuitionistic‌ ‌fuzzy‌-TOPSIS method," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 1443-1458.

    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:rensus:v:78:y:2017:i:c:p:401-413. 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/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/description#description .

    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.