Preface

Worldwide attention to environmental issues combined with the energy crisis force us to reduce greenhouse emissions and increase the usage of renewable energy sources as a solution to providing an efficient environment. This book addresses the current issues of sustainable growth and applications in renewable energy sources. The fifteen chapters of the book have been divided into two sections to organize the information accessible to readers.

The book provides a variety of material, for instance on policies aiming at the promotion of sustainable development and implementation aspects of RES. Authors contributing to the book have tried to prepare the information in an accessible way. We would like to extend our appreciation to all the authors for their cooperation and the attention that they have given to this book.

During this project, it was a pleasure for us to work with InTech – Open Access Publisher. We express our appreciation to all our colleagues in this publication, especially Ms. Ivana Zec, the Publishing Process Manager in charge of this book project.

### **Majid Nayeripour**

Faculty of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Shiraz University of Technology, Iran

> **Mostafa Kheshti**  Xi'an Jiaotong University, China

**Part 1** 

**Sustainable Growth** 

**Part 1** 

**Sustainable Growth** 

**1** 

*Italy* 

**EU Energy Policies and Sustainable Growth** 

The concentration of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere was at 438 parts per million (ppm) of CO2 equivalent in 2008, that is almost twice the pre-Industrial Revolution level (IEA, 2010). Such an increase is mainly caused by fossil fuel combustion for energy purposes in the power, industry, building and transport sectors (Stern, 2007). In the Reference Scenario, which gives economic and environmental assessments of a world in which the economy continues on its current course without polluting emission reductions policies, fossil fuel use is projected to grow, and the dirtiest fuel, i.e. coal, is expanding its share to face rising energy demand driven by emerging countries such as China and

The global response to climate change started with the so called Rio Earth Summit in 1992: governments realized the need to work together for an environmental and sustainable economic development. The Summit was a first move towards an environmental policy at global level, by setting the emission reduction targets for developed countries and establishing a framework of wider reduction for the future from a sustainable development point of view. Its weak point was that the Summit promised a lot at little cost, since it was an agreement without stringent measures (Helm, 2008). The Summit has been followed by several discussions with the purpose of finding optimal shared environmental policy for

Afterwards, the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement adopted in Kyoto on December 1997, has committed (instead of encouraging) 37 industrialized countries and the European Union (EU) to reduce GHG emissions through national measures. The EU has undoubtedly made a big effort in developing a progressive environmental policy, but many of its own policies are still far from making a difference to climate change. Following the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol in 2002, the EU committed itself to reduce emissions to 8% below 1990 levels by 2008-2012, allowing different national emissions target within the EU accounting for different income level, country size and

The current policy action toward green Europe is the so-called 20-20-20 Climate and Energy Package. The EU aims to limit its 2020 greenhouse gas emissions to 20% below 1990 levels and to meet a 20% renewables target of total energy supply by 2020. The Package includes a 20% energy efficiency target and a biofuel target of 10% by 2020 (Hepburn et al., 2006). To meet these targets, governments in EU countries use a large variety of support instruments.

**1. Introduction** 

facing climate change.

environmental attitude (Borghesi, 2010).

India.

*Department of Economics, Finance and Statistics, University of Perugia* 

Carlo Andrea Bollino and Silvia Micheli
