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

The implementation of environmentally sustainable energy policies is a well-defined objective of the European Union (EU), especially after the adoption of Directive 2009/28/EC. Following the guidelines provided by the EU, this paper aims at identifying the role of institutional, socio-economic and region-specific determinants in the variation of regional renewable energy production and, therefore, in the achievement of sustainable energy goals, i.e. increased renewable production. By using a Logit regression on 20 Italian regions, we have been able to show and highlight the accomplishments and failures of the adopted policies. The findings show that institutional and countryspecific drivers, together with innovation issues are playing the main role in the development of a green energy system.