Pathway for Four Central and Eastern European Countries to Achieve Low Carbon Development Based on the STIRPAT Model

Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, as the Visegrad Group members in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), play important roles in the green economy transition of Europe. The four CEE countries issued low carbon development strategies so as to realize climate change mitigation. However, the four countries faced various political and economic difficulties when transiting to a low carbon economy, including the energy consumption structure, the development of clean energy and the geopolitical conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The paper analyzed the factors influencing carbon emissions in the four CEE countries by using the STIRPAT model. Based on the empirical results, the paper put forward countermeasures and suggestions to promote low carbon development for the four CEE countries.