The effectiveness of European energy policy on the Italian system: Regional evidences from a hierarchical cluster analysis approach

By now, the importance of renewable energies is consolidated for the promotion of more and more green systems. Although this issue has become one of the cornerstones of the European Union and of each members States, evaluating the effectiveness of the applied environmental policies still results difficult. The basic aim of the paper is to propose an innovative approach for ex post monitoring of the actions carried out by Italian regions. By using both a multivariate technique and a classic convergence analysis, we set out to test in an original way whether the Italian regions realized in a successful way the environmental policies established by European Union (EU) in the energy sector. The results obtained highlight the existence of several improvements between 2008 and 2015, mainly in Southern regions, historically recognized as the less dynamic ones. Moreover, by using a panel data model we are able to offer useful suggestions about the financial allocation among the several typologies of renewable for reducing pollutants.