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The year 2021 was characterised by an economic rebound (real GDP +4,6 percent) as the COVID-19 pandemic subsided, and an accompanying 4.9 percent increase in greenhouse gas emissions. In 2022 emissions fell significantly by –6.4 percent according to initial estimates, although economic output grew by 4.9 percent. The decoupling of economic growth and emissions development was primarily due to price-related energy savings. In addition, weather-conditions also influenced greenhouse gas emissions. For example, a mild winter curbed heating demand and a dry summer reduced hydropower output. The significant increase in energy prices due to the Ukraine war drove up expenditure on fossil energy imports. The capacity of the renewable energy technologies photovoltaics and wind energy was increased by 15.9 percent. This year's special topic deals with the current status of the legislative implementation of the EU's "Fit for 55" package.

Das Jahr 2021 war durch einen wirtschaftlichen Rebound (BIP real +4,6%) im Zuge des Abklingens der COVID-19-Pandemie und eine damit einhergehende Zunahme der Treibhausgasemissionen um 4,9% gekennzeichnet. 2022 sanken die Emissionen nach ersten Schätzungen deutlich (–6,4%), obwohl die Wirtschaftsleistung um 4,9% zulegte. Die Entkoppelung von Wirtschaftswachstum und Emissionsentwicklung war in erster Linie auf preisbedingte Energieeinsparungen zurückzuführen. Daneben beeinflusste auch die Witterung den Treibhausgasausstoß. So dämpfte der milde Winter den Heizbedarf und ein trockener Sommer die Wasserkraftleistung. Die durch den Ukraine-Krieg deutlich gestiegenen Energiepreise trieben die Ausgaben für den Import fossiler Energieträger. Die Kapazität der erneuerbaren Energietechnologien Fotovoltaik und Windenergie wuchs 2022 um 15,9%. Das diesjährige Sonderthema befasst sich mit dem aktuellen Stand der legislativen Umsetzung des "Fit for 55"-Pakets der EU.

Modern western economies (in the Euro area and elsewhere) face a number of challenges over the coming decades. Achieving full employment, meeting climate change and other key environmental targets, and reducing inequality rank amongst the highest of these. The conventional route to achieving these goals has been to pursue economic growth. But this route has created two critical problems for modern economies The first is that higher growth leads (ceteris parabis) to higher environmental impact. The second is that fragility in financial balances has accompanied relentless demand expansion.

Economic policy in the EU faces a trilemma of solving three challenges simultaneously – growth, distribution, and the environment. In order to assess policies that address these issues simultaneously, economic models need to account for both sector-sector and sector-environment feedbacks within a single framework. This paper presents a multi-sectoral stock-flow consistent (SFC) macro model where a demand-driven economy consisting of multiple institutional sectors – firms, energy, households, government, and financial – interacts with the environment. The model is calibrated for the EU region and five policy scenarios are evaluated: low consumption, a capital stock damage function, carbon taxes, higher share of renewable energy, and technological shocks to productivity. Policy outcomes are tracked on overall output, unemployment, income and income distributions, energy, and emission levels. Results show that investment in mitigation technologies allows for absolute decoupling and ensures that the above three issues can be solved simultaneously.