**Preface to "Energy Economics and Policy in Developed Countries"**

Energy use per capita and as a share of GDP in developed countries is high. The high rate is attributed to rapid economic development and welfare that relies heavily on energy-intensive technologies and, in particular, relatively low price and easily accessible fossil fuels. The total energy consumption is continuously increasing but the primary source of electricity generation is increasingly based on renewable and non-fossil fuels. Production and consumption are also increasingly oriented towards the use of more efficient and energy-saving technologies. The global, national, and local environmental degradation and its strong effect on health have promoted the development of institutional capacity, technologies, environmental policies, regulations, and incentive programs to reduce energy use and its negative health and environmental impacts. Efforts are being made to change production and consumption patterns through various command and control policies ye<sup>t</sup> their effects are small and the coordination of costly environmental activities to avert radical climate change is difficult to achieve. The former twin crisis of poverty and environmental degradation is aggravated by the increased gap between north and south and their lack of will and coordination to allocate sufficient investment resources in sustainable development. The world is facing environmental degradation, poverty, inequality, climate change, migration, and frequent natural disasters. This Special Issue invites high-quality research covering a wide range of topics related to energy economics and politics in developed countries. This research is informative on how to encourage sustainable development and facilitate financing technology development, transfer, and applications to mitigate climate change.

> **Almas Heshmati** *Editor*

## *Article* **Development Forecasts for the Zero-Emission Bus Fleet in Servicing Public Transport in Chosen EU Member Countries**

### **Anna Brdulak 1, Gra ˙zyna Chaberek 2,\* and Jacek Jagodzi ´nski 3**


Received: 30 June 2020; Accepted: 12 August 2020; Published: 16 August 2020

**Abstract:** Nearly two-thirds of the emissions that cause smog come from road transport. In April 2019, the European Parliament adopted new regulations on public procurement to encourage investment in clean buses—electric, hydrogen, or gas. Directive 2009/33/EC is to apply from the second half of 2021. The aim of this article is to make an attempt to simulate the number of zero-emission buses (ZEB) in European Union (EU) member countries in two time horizons: 2025 and 2030, and to forecast the number of clean vehicles in the precise time horizons, including before and after 2050. Research questions are as follows: (1) what will be the number of ZEBs in individual EU countries over the next few years; (2) which of the EU countries will reach by 2030 the level of 95% share of ZEBs in all buses, which are a fleet of public transport buses; and (3) in which year will which EU countries reach the level of 95% share of zero-emission buses. The method used is a Bass model. The conducted analyses demonstrate that, by 2050, only four of the EU members will be able to reach 95% level of share of clean buses in the city bus transport fleets. It is likely that other countries may not achieve this even by 2050.

**Keywords:** electric buses; zero-emission buses (ZEB); clean buses; EU policy; zero emission policy; green energy; city management; simulation model; strategy; sustainable development
