The unwise use of natural resources has led to a global increase in greenhouse gases and widespread environmental pollution with a wide variety of wastes. The inefficient consumption of energy sources, the global energy crisis, and military actions in Ukraine have led to a drastic increase in the cost of energy sources and an increase in the prices of all goods and services worldwide. Countries around the world, and Bulgaria in particular, are solving tasks for improving energy, energy efficiency, and security and improving the energy sector. As part of the solution to this problem is the use of both renewable and alternative sources, more and more people are talking about this new generation of nuclear energy, and now nuclear energy according to a decision of the European Commission refers to green energy.
TopIntroduction
In connection with the global energy crisis of the last 2-3 years, the topic of energy resources and sources on a global scale is extremely relevant and is discussed at numerous high-level meetings between the heads of state of countries from all continents. This crisis did not pass by Europe and it can even be argued that the countries of Europe are one of the most affected by the energy and accompanying financial and resource crisis. This problem did not arise suddenly, and the leaders of the countries of Europe and the world started discussing the optimization of energy resources several decades ago (Mitev 2021). Since the beginning of this century, most countries in the world have followed a policy to limit harmful emissions of greenhouse gases and replace coal and other polluting plants with alternative and renewable sources, as well as ecological ones that do not pollute the environment. Unfortunately, many of the world's leading economic powers and economically developed countries refuse to comply with international agreements and norms and do not even participate in the implementation of the agreements. The European Union (EU), as one of the main political players, aims to be one of the world leaders in the fight against climate change and, in this regard, strives to achieve the goals of the agreement of the United Nations Conference of the Parties, the Framework Convention on Climate Change of the climate in Paris while providing clean energy to the entire continent. Bulgaria, as a member of the union, adheres to the set norms and even the requirements for us are higher than for the more economically developed countries from the western part of the continent (Dolchinkov & Karaivanova-Dolchinkova, 2021). To meet this commitment, the EU has set the following binding climate and energy targets by 2030, namely:
- 1.
Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% compared to 1990;
- 2.
Increasing energy efficiency to at least 32.5%, as Bulgaria has a lot to catch up on here;
- 3.
Increasing the share of energy from renewable sources to at least 32% of the gross final energy consumption in the EU. An evaluation of the energy efficiency of the alternative sources should also be made here, since a large part of them are energy-intensive and the consumed electricity is comparable to the produced;
- 4.
Ensuring a minimum 15% level of intersystem electricity connectivity between member countries. Bulgaria is energetically connected with its neighbors in terms of electricity, but the connections are not at the necessary operational level.
To ensure a coordinated and coherent approach across the EU and to implement the Energy Union Strategy, each Member State had to submit to the European Commission a draft of its integrated national energy and climate plan by 31 December 2018 and its final integrated plan until 31.12.2019 Bulgaria, as a member state of the European Union, promptly prepared and presented to the European Commission its Integrated National Environmental and Climate Plan (INECP) (Council of Ministers of the Republic of Bulgaria, 2020).
TopLiterature Review
The state of energy efficiency is addressed in a number of documents adopted by forums with the participation of most member countries of the United Nations (UN). The most important sources are the normative documents of world, international and European organizations and forums. Sources from Bulgarian authors were used (Dolchinkov, 2016; Haralampiev, 2020; Manchev, 2010; Nabatov, 2015; Padarev, 2018 and others, whose works used the decisions of various national and international organizations, agencies, governments, etc.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is one of three conventions adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, where the international community recognized the need for collective action to protect people and the environment and to limit greenhouse gas emissions and thereby improve the energy efficiency of the world's energy resources used. The Convention has been ratified by almost all countries of the world (United Nations, 1992).