Practice and issue of energy policies to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction targets in European countries

As the European leaders have pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions domestically by 40%, the Member States of the European Union have implemented and promoted various energy policies to meet such target. It is important to investigate the feasibility of these energy policies and understand relevant issues because that will play an important role to realize a sustainable and cost-effective energy system for Europe. In this regard, this paper aims to analyze EU's major energy policies―namely, increasing the renewable energy contribution and improving the energy efficiency―designed to support the greenhouse gas emission reductions. The recently established energy polices of two major states―Sweden and Poland―are specifically addressed and compared that the government currently considers. In addition, this paper examines the advantages and disadvantages of these energy policies, and presents an improvement with a focus on their implications for developing countries. Finally, this paper suggests the direction of the energy policy mix for European countries based on examples of the technology transfer programs on inter-nations and the green climates fund.