TRANSITION TOWARDS LOW CARBON ECONOMY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION AND CEE COUNTRIES

A low carbon economy is part of the green economy based on low energy consumption and low environmental pollution in order to prevent further consequences for global economies and human life. Shifting to a low carbon economy on a global scale might bring extensive benefits for countries around the world. The European Union Member States took first steps towards a low carbon economy in 1990 when they agreed to implement the first European climate target, namely, to soothe greenhouse gas emissions of the European Community at 1990 levels by 2000. During the years, the EU worked on frameworks that will help them to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions and will have an impact on the European economy. In 2005, the European Union established the EU ETS known as the world's first international emissions trading system. The EU ETS has proved that putting a price on carbon and trading can work, furthermore since the EU ETS has been established, greenhouse gas emissions from sectors covered by the system are lower than in 2005. In March 2020, the EU proposed the long-term strategy with the most important objective - to become the first continent by 2050 with zero greenhouse gas emissions. This paper examines differences between Central and Eastern European countries (CEE countries) who are Member States of the EU and the other EU Member States. Their progress regarding lower energy consumption and lower pollution for the period 2008 to 2017. This paper intends to discover differences between CEE countries and the Member States in their greenhouse gas emissions and their greenhouse gas emissions per GDP. Out of 12 CEEC defined by OECD, 11 countries were analyzed since Albania is not Member State of the EU. Data on greenhouse gas emissions for all the countries were obtained from Eurostat, the data for the gross domestic product (GDP) per country in US dollars. Univariate and bivariate statistical methods were used to analyze differences between countries and to give recommendations for further research.