The effect of policies on the consumption of renewable energy

Renewable energy has been a much spoken of topic in the last two decades. The European Union has recently formed a plan to become independent and set itself as an example in the fight against climate change. All the states in the European Union have agreed to commit to the so-called “20-20-20” targets and develop and design policies to encourage investment in renewable energy capacity to eventually increase the consumption in renewable energy. Has consumption indeed increased and have these policies caused this increase? In this paper, I will look at these policies and if they have any effect on the consumption of renewable energy. The first section will start with a brief history of EU energy policy, and then I will explain the targets and show how the countries are doing at the moment and why it is important to keep to the targets. After that, the policies will be explained. The econometric analysis will consist of an explanation of the variables I have chosen, the methodology I have followed, the results and eventually the analysis of the results.