Resource efficiency and decarbonisation of economies in the European Union

Abstract People have always been interested in improving their quality of life. But how is this possible when the population is constantly growing, and the planet’s resources are dwindling? The efficient use of resources is not only believed to increase the general quality of life but also to contribute to the creation of a cleaner environment. But what is the relation between resource efficiency and a cleaner environment? The European Commission and the United Nations have been dealing with this key issue for many years now and the EU has forced member countries to meet certain targets. This paper presents some of the UN and EU’s policies with regard to climate change and resource efficiency and offers an independent evaluation of the achievements of Member States. We assumed that the implementation of the objectives of the EU climate and energy package improves the resource productivity and reduces its negative impact on the environment, relation analysed with the help of a linear regression model. Further, we have performed a critical study on the performance of EU-member states in meeting their GHG-emission targets correlated with the resource intensity of their economies, modelled using Microsoft Excel. Resource efficiency and the low-carbon economy have emerged as central themes in global discussions on the transition to a sustainable economy, and this paper sheds new light onto the connection between the two subjects.