Recent Developments in the Sustainability Field: Energy and Economic Indicators in the European Union in 2015

For the past decade renewable energy represented a main source of technological and environmental progress in the European Union, as well as on a global scale. During these years the renewable energy installments have steadily built significant sources of energy of national economics, but also contributed to the progress for achieving energy dependence decrease and the EU 2020 sustainability strategy. In the present chapter the Pearson coefficient was used to determine connections between ten main economic and energy indicators from the European Union in 2015, which revealed development trends of the member states depending on the evolution of each indicator for the year mentioned. The study revealed significant correlations, such as the negative correlation between the energy dependence and the share of renewable energy consumption in gross final energy consumption. Other correlations of the chapter present further connections between economic and energy indicators, having a direct impact on the sustainability strategy of the EU and on the energy consumers. The relevance of the study lies in the analysis of the most recent available data regarding the selected indicators from the European Union, that will contribute to the future development of the economic landscape significantly depending on current renewable energy trends.