THE ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN DIRECTIVE ON RENEWABLE ENERGY CONSUMPTION IN REDUCING POLLUTION IN CEE COUNTRIES FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION

Pollution is a major challenge for the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries that joined the EU. In this context, the main aim of this paper is to check if renewable energy consumption reduced the CO2 emissions in the region due to EU directives. According to method of moments quantile regression (MMG) and mean group (MG) estimators, the renewable energy consumption reduced the CO2 emissions in 11 CEE countries from the EU in the period 2007-2021. Moreover, the synthetic control method based on a donor pool composed by Russian Federation and Montenegro suggests that Renewable Energy Directive launched in 2009 reduced pollution in the 11 CEE states, but the reduction is larger compared to CEE countries outside the EU since 2019 given the new targets proposed in the Revised Renewable Energy Directive in 2018. In the complex EU policy framework, gender pay gap should be considered and it seems it reduces CO2 emissions in the CEE countries from the EU. These findings support the policy recommendations in the EU countries from Central-Eastern region of Europe.