(1) Introduction: The European Union is a global leader in the transition to a low-carbon economy. The community’s population has already reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 22%, while the gross domestic product (GDP) in its member states increased by 58% between 1990 and 2017. The Union has shown that economic growth is possible in the link between politics, nature, and the citizens’ eco-empathy. It has implications for both the European and global economy, infrastructure, food production, public health, and biodiversity, the formula for political stability. The hallmark of the European Union is the blending of politics, culture, and nature in its quest for climate neutrality. The community’s horizon is a zero-emission economy by 2050. (2) Theoretical framework: The cognitive assumptions of the article are the following theses: 1. The Union strives to accelerate the transition process to a regenerative growth model using technologies for obtaining and distributing energy for individual and collective needs; 2. The Union and the European citizens want to hand over more to planet Earth than they take away from it, thus making progress toward keeping resource consumption within planetary limits. 3. The Union aims to reduce its consumption footprint and double the rate of applying closed-loop materials in the next decade. Finally, it fits in with the organization’s policy projections. (3) Methodology and research results: Qualitative and quantitative research methods were used in the research process. The literature has been analyzed on the subject and the applicable legal acts, making it possible to classify, generalize, describe, and systematize the facts collected during the research. A survey was conducted on 1106 students, and in-depth interviews were conducted with three energy experts: Krzysztof Tomaszewski (the University of Warsaw, researcher and lecturer on energy security issues), Dariusz Pachniewski (inventor in energy sector, businessman in hydrogen energy sector), and Tomoho Umeda (President of Polish Chamber of Commerce). The research aimed to identify the environmental and energy awareness, knowledge of renewable energy sources, and opinions of young Poles on their use in two areas: home and work. (4) Discussion: The reinforced narrative of creating a low-carbon society, a green economy, was adapted and evaluated for innovative individual and collective approaches in the research conducted in this paper. In the quantitative and qualitative samples, the assumptions made were double-checked. The former verified the students’ views, while the latter, the experts’ views. The procedure established the directions of knowledge evolution and approach to technologies and innovations among students of technical faculties related to the energy sector. There were existing individual and collective mental constructs on energy transition and climate neutrality identified. (5) Conclusions: The surveys conducted among university students of energy-related majors and specialties and experts revealed important information. First, it concerned the way knowledge is communicated and how it is interpreted; second, informing and implementing the European Union’s climate policy; third, the creation of a low-carbon society; fourth, the perception of climate neutrality among young Poles, and finally, preferences in energy generation and use in homes and businesses.

The European Union’s New Green Deal generates changes in the socio-economic development of regions. An element of this change is the transformation of the regional profiles of the energy portfolio towards more pro-ecological ones. The aim of this article is to identify the conditions and reasons for the transformation of the energy portfolio of the Eastern Poland macroregion, and to define the directions of the energy portfolio evolution caused by the need to implement the goals of the European Green Deal by 2030, in order to consequently develop the forecast energy portfolio for the Eastern Poland macroregion. It has been assumed that the energy transformation of the Eastern Poland macroregion will be implemented through gradual transformation of the energy portfolio towards dispersed sources of local and civic energy. The research is based on both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The qualitative research was carried out on the basis of the diagnostic survey method with the use of the proprietary questionnaire as well as with the analysis of the content of strategic documents of the voivodships included in the Eastern Poland macroregion. The basis for the preparation of research questions was the extended PEST method which stands for: political, economic, socio-cultural, technological. Research efforts were focused on developing an energy portfolio for the region using the assumptions of the Boston consulting group matrix (a strategic planning tool). The originality of the conducted research consists in the adaptation of the BCG matrix to the development of the forecast energy portfolio and the preparation of a proposal for the aggregated energy portfolio of the Eastern Poland macroregion. The obtained results indicate that the macroregion’s energy portfolio is diversified, though with the key significance of conventional sources. It is predicted that by 2030, the following sources will change their positions within the portfolio for the Eastern Poland macroregion: solar energy, wind energy and bioenergy. However, it will retain the character of a “youth wallet”.

The work focuses on the controversy about technological progress and unlimited access to all kinds of energy acquisition, storage and distribution. It suggests a formula for energy acquisition and usage which embraces issues of peace and war, social conflicts, and stability determined by access to energy conditioned by the state of the climate of our planet. The question is how will an interdisciplinary combination of progress and future implementation of technologies influence energy security of states and social entities, their natural environment, up to 2030 and beyond? The methods used in the work rely on a non – linear approach to disruptive technologies combined with empirical verifiability of scientific progress in the field of energy acquisition and use. They are reinforced with drivers taken from development scenarios gained through technological development in quantum mechanics, molecular biology, and computational techniques. The result is a conceptual approach to energy acquisition and distribution for states, their communities and individuals regardless of whether the technologies are “civil” or “military” in their essence. The recalled disruptive technologies shape factors of social development and create conditions for human existence and the natural environment that influence the security of states and social entities. The development of automation and robotics, digital transformation, bio-technologies and cognitive science creates new energy security for states, social entities and the natural environment. Technologies for the generation, processing and distribution of energy create an almost unlimited perspective of reconfiguration of existing forms of life and their safety.

Autor podejmuje kluczowe dla współczesnych stosunków międzynarodowych pytanie o paradygmat bezpieczeństwa. Kluczową tezą jest stwierdzenie, że paradygmat takowy występuje i ewoluuje w czasie wraz z podmiotami stosunków międzynarodowych oraz zmieniającymi się uwarunkowaniami bezpieczeństwa międzynarodowego. Pojęcie to nie jest jednolite dla wszystkich podmiotów stosunków międzynarodowych, a jego swoista uniwersalność wynika z posiadania pewnego zespołu wspólnych cech, które występują w środowisku bezpieczeństwa międzynarodowego (globalnym, regionalnym, subregionalnym, lokalnym) i są tożsame dla większości podmiotów występujących w stosunkach międzynarodowych. Oznacza to, że istniejący paradygmat bezpieczeństwa posiada cząstkowe cechy środowiska bezpieczeństwa międzynarodowego, tożsame dla większości podmiotów w nim występujących. Przybiera przy tym nie tylko odmienne postacie w przypadku poszczególnych wymiarów bezpieczeństwa (globalnego, regionalnego, subregionalnego, lokalnego), lecz także dla poszczególnych podmiotów.

The contemporary form of security in the European Union is undergoing profound changes. The solutions adopted in the first decade of the 21st century no longer meet the needs of this organisation and the EU Member States. New solutions that would functionally change the form of relationships between institutions have not been conceptually worked out. The European Union, struggling with numerous economic, social, and political crises, enters the next stage. Soon it will be decided, in which direction the organisation and its member states will develop. This article focuses on the current form of organisational and functional solutions of the EU by subjecting them to a critical review. The author evaluates, what is created in terms of decision-making processes and their results in the areas of foreign policy, security, and defence. Consequently, the article demonstrates the conditions that determine the form of the EU’s activities at the threshold of the second decade of the 21st century. Its result is the identification of change processes in security that determine the projection of the development of the European Union.