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The agri-food sector is the world's largest economic sector having the biggest impact on environment. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), sustainable agriculture must meet the needs of present and future generations while ensuring profitability, environmental health and social and economic equity. Therefore, agricultural systems need transition to become more sustainable. The use of renewables in agriculture allows to reduce energy costs and GHG emissions and implement cyclic economy principles. Sustainability assessment of agriculture can be done by applying various sets of indicators. The sustainability assessment of agriculture can be performed on country and micro level. The paper presents assessment of agricultural sustainability of Baltic States based on indicators framework and applies MCDA tool for ranking of Baltic States in terms of agriculture sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Commission introduced a package of measures to accelerate the shift to low-carbon energy transition in Europe. In 2014, EU member states agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. The binding greenhouse gas emission targets for Member States from 2021 to 2030 for the transport, buildings, agriculture, waste, and land-use and forestry sectors were established. EU Member States should decide on their own how to meet the agreed upon 2030 target and implement climate-change-mitigation measures. All EU MSs have committed to prepare national energy and climate plans based on regulation on the governance of the energy union and climate action (EU)2018/1999, agreed as part of the Clean Energy for All Europeans package approved in 2019. The national plans outline how the EU Member States intend to implement the GHG reduction target by increasing their in energy efficiency, use of renewables, greenhouse-gas-emission reductions, interconnections, and research and innovation. This paper analyzes the energy and climate plans of the Baltic States and systematizes the main climate-change-mitigation policies in the energy sector targeting the household sector. The background of energy and climate planning is provided from a theoretical point of view, encompassing regional, local, and national energy and climate plans. The diffusion levels of renewables in the Baltic States were determined and the energy-climatic-friendly policies followed, by them, they were identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2020 climate and energy package adopted in 2009 sets three key targets for EU Member States: 20% cut in greenhouse gas emissions (from 1990 levels); to ensure 20% of renewables in final energy consumption and to achieve 20% improvement in energy efficiency from 2005 levels. The paper analyses the progress of selected countries in achieving climate and energy targets by 2020. Baltic States, namely Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia were selected for comparative assessment of their achievements in GHG emission reduction, energy efficiency improvement and use of renewable energy sources. Indicator's framework was constructed to capture the most important drivers of GHG emission reduction from fuel combustion. These indicators allow to compare countries in their achievements by assessing their main energy and climate change policies. The analysis and comparison of the trends of the main indicators allows to define the best performing country and the reason of this. Policy implications were developed for Baltic States to pursue further progress in achieving energy and climate targets for 2030 and 2050. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the modern world, including the European Union, the Baltic States and Latvia, the power industry has a broad definition, area and content, several social life and economic existence, comfort and safety provision. It also covers the following segments: heat/thermal energy, transport/fuel, electricity, energy resources and their types, etc. More competent and wider synergy among different energy sectors and power industry and other areas provides the option to solve the global problems, for example, the mitigation of climate changes and the provision of energy sustainability by reducing the production of greenhouse gases, increasing the use of renewable energy sources, achieving higher energy efficiency and providing the careful use of energy resources. The results of synergy are of economic importance; they provide the efficiency and competitiveness of costs. In this paper, the necessity of synergy between renewables and conventional generation and synergy among energy sectors are considered to achieve the dimensions of national energy and climate plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on financial support from EU Structural Funds to sustainable energy development in Baltic States. The paper aims to compare the use of Structural Funds support for sustainable energy development in Baltic States in two financing periods: 2007–2013 and 2014–2020 and to assess the impact of EU structural support in helping Baltic States to implement energy efficiency and renewable energy development targets set in EU energy policy documents. The paper analyses EU sustainable energy policy priorities and energy efficiency and renewable energy targets set for Baltic States and compares progress achieved in implementing energy efficiency and renewable energy targets in Baltic States after EU accession. The paper found that the EU Structural Funds have positively influenced the sustainable energy development in Baltic States. The major impact was related with increase in energy productivity because of energy savings achieved in refurbishment of residential buildings. Lithuania has achieved the biggest progress in energy productivity development since 2004 among Baltic States. Estonia was the only country from Baltic States which has allocated structural aid for promotion of wind energy and achieved the best results in increase of the share of renewables (mainly wind) in electricity generation. Latvia has the highest share of renewable in electricity generation structure and final energy consumption and did not provide support for renewable in 2007–2014 however support for biomass is foreseen in 2014–2020 financing period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Abstract: The goal of this paper is to estimate the perspectives of the Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on meeting the new European Union climate commitments, i.e., to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20% to the year 2020 in comparison with 1990. This ambitious target could be reached based on other EU climate and energy package commitments: increase of the share of renewables and improvement of energy efficiency as tools for fulfilling the GHG emissions reduction target. The paper gives an overview on the current situation and future plans of the Baltic States in the field of energy efficiency, consumption of renewables and reduction of GHG emissions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The paper analyzes consumption related household CO 2 equivalent (CO 2e ) emissions for the three Baltic States – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania from 1995 to 2011. The analysis is based on a multi-regional input–output model, which allows us to estimate life-cycle emissions for all major household consumption items. Results demonstrate that household carbon footprints in all the Baltic States significantly increased by 47% in Estonia, 20% in Latvia and 52% in Lithuania during the study period. In 2011 in Estonia expenditures for housing and utility contributed the highest per capita life-cycle emissions – 43%. However, in Lithuania housing accounted only for 16% of per capita emissions, but food and transport were responsible for 31%; whereas in Estonia and Latvia transport accounted for 18% and 21%, respectively. Production processes related to food consumption are responsible for 18% of emissions in Estonia, 31% in Latvia and Lithuania. Most of the indirect emissions are related to imports from Russia and China followed by imports from other Baltic States. If consumption-based emissions are to decrease countries will have to (1) change household behavior, which requires relevant knowledge, infrastructure and resources to facilitate switching to lower carbon-intensive alternatives; (2) decarbonize their own energy and transport sectors; and (3) reduce lifecycle emissions associated with trade, by supporting imports from low carbon regions, including producing locally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of a country's economy is directly related to the use of energy in that country's economic sectors. Therefore, the energy–environmental Kuznets curve (EEKC) is often used when analysing a country's potential and challenges in sustainable development, green economy, and green growth. This hypothesis tests whether there is an inverse "U"-shaped relationship between energy use and economic growth and is especially important when analysing developing countries to assess if, at a certain point, energy use begins to drop, resulting in fewer greenhouse gas emissions, environmental degradation, and the consumption of fossil-based fuels. This study aims to examine the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth in the Baltic States from 1995 to 2019, with a focus on the agriculture sector. The study uses the non-linear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model for individual and panel time series. Total energy use, as well as electricity use, is included in the study, whereas gross value added is employed as a measure of economic growth. Research data analysis reveals that energy use in all three Baltic countries stabilises as gross value added increases. However, there is insufficient evidence to show that after a certain point, energy use begins to drop; thus, the hypothesis for the inverse "U"-shaped energy–environmental Kuznets curve (EEKC) is rejected. Research results have important practical implications regarding countries' policies toward energy, including the use of electricity and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of the climate change problem is recognised by the governments of the overwhelming majority of the world's countries. To bring additional attention and enable more concrete action, in a number of countries and municipalities the issue has been declared a climate emergency. The need to solve this problem predetermines the task of replacing fossil energy sources with renewable alternatives. The process of the ongoing transformation is called energy transition. It includes transformation of all the energy-intensive sectors of economic activity: power generation, supply and consumption, heat generation and supply, electrification of transport, agriculture and households. The main goal of the energy transition is obvious – it is necessary to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The main sources of energy used to achieve this goal in power generation are wind and solar energy. Even though the goal is unambiguously defined and the way to achieve it seems evident, it is already clear that a number of serious problems and obstacles have arisen. They are caused by the emergence of additional objectives that must be achieved and constraints that need to be satisfied in the process of the required transformations. Indeed, the transition should be carried out taking into account power system properties describing techno-economic efficiency, reliability, stability, adequacy, etc. This list can be expanded easily. It should be noted that the additional objectives are not less important than the overarching goal. Along with reducing emissions, it is also necessary to improve energy supply reliability, its availability and affordability for all the segments of the population as well as maintain the security of the energy supply infrastructure and processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Baltic Sea states and the European Commission initiated the intergovernmental Baltic Sea Energy Cooperation (BASREC) in 1998 and established it the following year. The aim of this study is to examine and compare the energy productivity change, energy technical change, and energy efficiency change in Baltic Sea states and non-Baltic Sea states using the Malmquist-DEA approach. The main results indicate that energy productivity in the Baltic Sea states has been improved, with this mainly caused by energy technology progression; however, the improvement in energy efficiency is not so obvious. In addition, the subsample includes 10 former communist countries, showing that the source of their energy productivity change not only comes from energy technical change, but also energy efficiency changes. In other words, the catching up effect in the 10 former communist countries is more obvious than that in the Baltic Sea states. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]