**Alina Zaharia 1, Maria Claudia Diaconeasa 1, Laura Brad 2, Georgiana-Raluca Lădaru 1,\* and Corina Ioanăs, <sup>3</sup>**


Received: 1 July 2019; Accepted: 30 July 2019; Published: 1 August 2019

**Abstract:** Based on the global need to reduce the primary and final energy consumption, as part of the climate change mitigation strategy, the present study aims at determining the influence of different economic, social and environmental factors on the two types of consumption while emphasizing the importance of this topic for the research area. The novelty of the study resides in the factors considered in the panel analysis as well as in the combination of the analysis methods: the panel data analysis and the bibliometric analysis. The main results show that factors such as greenhouse gas emissions, gross domestic product, population and labour growth have a positive relationship with both primary and final energy consumption, which means an increase of energy consumption. Meanwhile, factors such as feminine population increase, healthcare expenditures or energy taxes have a negative relationship, which determine a reduction of energy consumption. The results should be of interest to the authorities in designing new energy reduction policies for contributing to sustainable development goals, as well as to the researchers.

**Keywords:** sustainable development; energy consumption; econometric model; bibliometric analysis; relationship

#### **1. Introduction**

The possibility of harnessing the free energy that surrounds us or that of reproducing it for providing light or heat has puzzled scientists for centuries. Either by burning some natural resources such as oil or coals or by experimenting ways of multiplying the natural lightening, people such as Thomas Edison [1], tried to satisfy their basic needs, those of heat and light. New inventions, such as Faraday's dynamometer in 1830 [2] allowed people to use electric power for building machines and finally, it represented the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution. This new era in the history of mankind proposed models for the development of society based on intense use of resources; it contributed to setting the world great powers, and along with development, there comes an increase in a country's energy consumption [3].

Yet, the Industrial Revolution also had side effects, on economic, social and environmental levels. Those countries which could afford to invest in developing the industrial sector are still economic world leaders, a fact that roots social disparities [4] and those which are currently developing are expected to increase their energy consumption [3,5] since there is an obvious relationship between energy consumption and economic growth [5]. This also caused severe environmental damage, understood

mostly by climate changes [6]. Some experts use the term eco-crisis to describe the recently formed economic and ecologic relationship [7].

Since the 1970s [8] the attention was drawn to the major global growth drivers of eco-crisis, namely: Population, agriculture, industry, social inequality, natural resources, including energy resources, and pollution. Since then, several experts have turned their attention on the relationship between energy consumption and economic factors influenced by it [9] or on energy consumption and environmental factors [10,11].

Even more, it is worldwide acknowledged that energy consumption must be reduced in order to mitigate the climatic changes that constantly occur because of it. The United Nations, through their 2015 sustainable development strategy named the 2030 Agenda has developed a set of 17 sustainable development goals [12], number seven in this set of goals is refereeing directly to the energy sector: "Affordable and clean energy". This goal has two sides, one of them related to increasing the accessibility to electric power for the poor or isolated communities, and the second side, related to increasing the percentage of renewable energy sources in the total consumption of energy and even replacing conventional energy with renewable energy production.

Undoubtedly, the holistic management of the resources plays a key role in meeting sustainability goals, and the energy sector is an important part of this puzzle. The current situation of environmental degradation manifested by the overexploitation of energy resources and the intensification of climate change, known as the eco-crisis, occurred on the background of the Industrial Revolution.

Yet, we must ask ourselves, what are the critical influencers of the energy sector? Where should we focus in order to develop a sustainable energy sector? There are also other experts who contribute to solving these questions [13–17] by studying the relationship between energy consumption and gross domestic product. However, some of the results are inconclusive or mixed and they heavily depend on the indicators considered and the methodology chosen.

Therefore, the need for retesting some of the already analysed variables is obvious, as it is the inclusion of new indicators and indices of the social, economic and environmental system in previous models, which have not been tested yet [18].

In this case, this study aims to assess the energy determinants at European Members level (EU28) through a holistic approach of the system (including all the areas: Economic, social, environmental, etc.) in order to identify critical points (some not yet explored) which influence the sustainability of the energy sector.

The constructed models consider the literature in the field, as well as the testing of new determinants of the considered endogenous variables.

The data was gathered from several data bases: Eurostat [19], World Bank [20] and the Energy Information Administration—EIA [21]. The multitude and diversity of the indicators analysed, and the models considered are a necessary contribution to substantiate the proposals to improve the European Union energy and climate targets and policies. The region was chosen due to the availability of the data, as well as for the historic importance and the presence of both developed and developing economies.

A first objective of the research is to analyse whether the relationship between the energy consumption, emissions and the economic sector poses an interest for the researchers, through a bibliometric analysis of the articles available on the Web of Science database.

The second objective is to analyse the factors that should be prioritized in order to reduce energy consumption at EU28 level for mitigating climate change and reducing the risk of worsening social welfare.

The final objective is to highlight the implications of research on sustainable energy policies at a European level.

The present paper is structured into four main sections. The first section presents the main findings in the literature on this topic, which are relevant for the current discussion. The second section regards the chosen methodology and presents the construction of the present analysis and models. The third section presents the main findings of the research and it is structured in three main subsections, first presenting the results of the bibliometric analysis, second, presenting the results of the panel data models on the primary energy consumption and third, presenting the results of the panel data models on the final energy consumption. The fourth section discusses the obtained results by comparing them with other relevant studies and by providing a series of recommendations. The paper ends with a concluding section.
