What Is the Macroeconomic Impact of Higher Decarbonization Speeds? The Case of Greece

Abstract

In alignment with the European Union’s legislation, Greece submitted its final 10-year National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) in December 2019, setting more ambitious energy and climate targets than those originally proposed in the draft version of the document. Apart from higher penetration of renewable energy sources (RES), the final NECP projects also zero carbon use in power generation till 2030. Although decarbonization has long been regarded beneficial for economies that base their energy production on coal, as it is the case with Greece, the macroeconomic and societal ramifications of faster transitions to carbon-free economies remain highly unexplored. Under this context, in this paper, we soft-link energy models, namely Times-Greece and Primes, with a macroeconomic model, namely Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP), to measure the effects of the final and draft NECPs on the Greek economy and evaluate the impact of higher decarbonization speeds. We find that the faster transition scenario displays both economic and societal merits, increasing Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and household income by about 1% and 7%, respectively.

Big Data Value Chain: Multiple Perspectives for the Built Environment

“…A number of European Directives and initiatives are setting strict objectives on Member States in order to meet targets set for 2030. To this end, significant changes and investments are required such as an increase in the renewable energy sources (RES) capacity and buildings stock energy efficiency improvement [3].…”

Energy and Mineral Resources Exploitation in the Delignitization Era: The Case of Greek Peripheries

“…Energy transition for Greece entails delignitization. Thus, in order for Greece to be a pioneer in energy transition, it submitted in 2019 a 10-year National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) that unveils how to cease all energy production from coal until the year 2028 [2].…”

“…The process of delignitization has already started, since occasionally the electric charge is not based on the operation of a lignite unit. Based on the limitation in terms of time set by the Greek government for the purpose of delignitization, it is now imperative to come up with alternatives for a successful lignite detoxification process, in order for the effects on the local economy and society to be limited [2].…”

“…More specifically, the changes in the labor market due to internal and external migration and the need for position changes that entail further education, are a few examples of socioeconomic problems, while cultural degradation due to the disappearance of traditional activities, along with the aesthetic degradation of ex-lignite areas lead to significant cultural problems [2].…”

“…This is a difficult and time-consuming process, which requires a synergy of all the involved parties in order to be successful. Considering the comparative advantages and the emerging opportunities generated in the research areas, an Integrated Program with a duration of a more than decade is required [2]. The objective of carbon neutrality along with the decarbonization process, as synopsized in the energy transition, has been the subject of extensive studies conducted by the European Commission and other research institutions [16,17].…”