energies Article The Economic Impact of Investment in Renewables in Croatia by 2030 Tomislav Gelo, Nika Šimurina and Jurica Šimurina *   Citation: Gelo, T.; Šimurina, N.; Šimurina, J. The Economic Impact of Investment in Renewables in Croatia by 2030. Energies 2021, 14, 8215. https://doi.org/10.3390/en14248215 Academic Editors: Katarzyna Bili ´ nska-Reformat, Vincenzo Bianco, Donato Morea and Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas Received: 11 October 2021 Accepted: 3 December 2021 Published: 7 December 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia; tgelo@net.efzg.hr (T.G.); nsimurina@efzg.hr (N.Š.) * Correspondence: jsimurina@efzg.hr Abstract: At the beginning of 2020, the Strategy of the Republic of Croatia until 2030 with an outlook to 2050 was adopted. The Strategy analyzes two energy transition scenarios, the accelerated energy transition and the moderate energy transition. The Strategy is guided and defined by goals set out by the European Union (EU), which primarily states to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and increase the share of renewable energy sources. In order to reach these goals, it is necessary to substitute fossil fuel capacities with new capacities for the production of electricity from renewable sources. In order to do so, a new wave of investments is needed. The Strategy does not detail the macroeconomic effects of investments in renewable sources on the Croatian economy, generally quantified through GDP growth and employment. This paper analyzes the macroeconomic effects of announced investments in renewable energy sources for electricity production. The analysis encompasses the time period 2021–2030. The effects are quantified using the input–output tables for Croatia. The analysis exhibits relatively modest macroeconomic effects of investments into renewable energy on the Croatian economy. The paper concludes that it is necessary to change the structure and dynamics of investment in renewable energy. First, the investment should go into sources with the highest domestic component in investments and at the same time develop production capacities in technologies and equipment production for wind and solar capacities. Keywords: input–output analysis; energy strategy; renewables; energy transition 1. Introduction Consumption of fossil fuels harms the environment and is the leading cause of cli- mate change. This fact influenced energy to become one of the essential areas of common interest to all EU member states within the common energy and climate policies. Today, the EU, guided by the common energy policy, leads the process of decarbonizing eco- nomic activity and focuses on transformation toward a low carbon economy according to the Paris Accords. All member states are following the common energy and climate policies by achieving the set goals. After the 2020 goals were met, 2030 goals were defined. Two primary goals are connected to renewable energy sources (RES): decrease greenhouse gasses by 40% until 2030, compared to 1990, and increase the share of renewable energy sources in energy consumption to 32% [1]. According to the established goals, each mem- ber state creates a national development strategy for ten years. The long-term energy development goals defined by the energy strategy should not be an expression of current wishes but sourced to available options and means of realization. The EU climate goals, besides environmental impact, have a profound economic impact on respective EU member states. The impact is not uniformly distributed among countries. The economic effects can be stronger or weaker depending on the structure of economic activity, innovation, and the scope of innovations. If innovation implementation is proper, it can create a strong position in the market. In order to create a favorable market position, countries should engage in digitalization and Industry 4.0 solutions to influence Energies 2021, 14, 8215. https://doi.org/10.3390/en14248215 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/energies