The Frugal Four are Austrian Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden

Debt to GDP Ratio (2019)

1. Sweden: 35.1%
2. Denmark: 33.2%
3. Netherlands: 48.6%
4. Austria 70.4%

Net Contribution to the EU Budget (2018 in million euros)

1. Netherlands: +4,877
2. Sweden: + 1,983
3. Austria + 1,534
4. Denmark: + 1,468

As a group their combined net contribution of 8,862 comes after Germany and ahead of France

1. Coal: 35.18%
2. Natural Gas: 23.52%
3. Hydro: 16.54%
4. Nuclear: 10.52%
5. Wind: 5.44%
6. Other Fossil Fuels: 3.47%
7. Solar: 2.71%
8. Biomass and Waste: 2.24%
9. Other Renewables: 0.4%

% of Gross Final Energy Consumption

Ranking (2020 Target)

1. Austria: Federal Association of Photovoltaic
2. Bulgaria: Bulgarian Photovoltaic Association; BSA-Bulgarian Solar Association
3. Czech Republic : CZePHO-Czech Solar Association; Solarniasociace-Solar Association
4. Denmark : Solcelleforening
5. Finland : Finnish Solar Energy Society
6. France : SER-Syndicat des Energies Renouvelables ; Enerplan-Syndicat des professionnels de l’énergie solaire

Members

In Bold Associations

1. Austria: IG Interessengemeinschaft Windkraft Österreich,
2. Belgium: EDORA-Fédération des énergies renouvelables ; Belgian Offshore Cluster; Belgian Offshore Platform ; VWEA- Vlaamse Windenergie Associatie
3. Bulgaria: BGWEA- Bulgarian Wind Energy Association
4. Croatia: Renewable Energy Sources of Croatia
5. Czech Republic: CzWEA/CSVE-The Czech Wind Energy Association

Source: Rasmussen Global Political Consultancy and Business Advisory

The views and opinions expressed here below are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the AALEP.

Impact of COVID-19 for business and politics

European trust in the United States has declined sharply since U.S. President Donald Trump took office.  During Trump’s first three years in office, many of his policies seem designed to undermine transatlantic solidarity. Trump withdrew from the Paris climate agreement, questioned the sanctity of NATO’s Article 5 defense guarantee, withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, pulled U.S. troops from Syria without consulting European allies, carried out the targeted killing of an Iranian general in Iraq again without consulting European allies, undermined U.S.

The importance of renewables for EU-Russia energy relations should grow. Despite declarative statements of mutual interest, shared objectives and cooperation in decarbonization policy, there has been very limited cooperation . The EU has set ambitious plans to decarbonize its economy and energy sector by 2050. However, in Russia energy policy is dominated by hydrocarbon exports, decarbonization targets are modest, and there are major problems with their implementation.

Russia is quite an important player in the global energy system: with just 3% of the global gross domestic product (GDP) and 2% of the global population, it provides 10% of global primary energy production, 5% of global primary energy consumption, and 16% of international energy trade. Russia is the world’s largest exporter of energy resources (#2 for oil exports, #1 for gas exports, and #3 for coal exports in 2017.