Energising EU Cohesion
The European Green Deal aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the European Un-ion (EU) by 55% by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. An increase in renewable energy (RE) as the main source of energy is at the heart of the transition to carbon neutrali-ty. However, an EU-wide clean energy transition is challenged by disparities between and within the 27 Member States. In order to analyze the impact of a clean energy transition on distributional effects across the EU, we developed a new multiregional input-output (MRIO) model that takes into account the different impact channels of investments in RE technolo-gies, their regional distribution, the economic structural differences of the EU's NUTS-2 re-gions, and their interlinkages through local to global value chains. A new database has been created to increase the sectoral resolution of the MRIO tables. Survey-based cost structures for the production and operation of ten of the most important renewable energy technologies (e.g. wind, hydropower, photovoltaics, solar thermal , biomass, biogas and geothermal) are combined with MRIO tables from the EUREGIO database, which reflect the economic structure of the EU's NUTS-2 regions and interregional as well as international trade dependencies. This MRIO modelling approach makes it possible to assess possible synergies and trade-offs between the clean energy transition and cohesion between and within the regions of the 27 EU Member States.