Reducing inequalities within and among countries is one of the main tenets of the sustainable development paradigm and has become an important pillar at the European Union level. By adopting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, EU countries have committed themselves to meet targets against which progress in reducing inequalities can be measured. Through the present research, we aim to analyze and assess the extent to which EU countries will achieve the specific SDG 10 targets. Based on data published by Eurostat for the period 2010–2020, we forecast the trends of the indicators until the year 2030, using a model based on the AAA (Holt–Winters) version of exponential smoothing (ETS), to assess the degree to which the assumed targets will be reached. For more detailed information, we used dynamic indices to analyze the dynamics of the progress achieved. The results showed that it is difficult to clearly distinguish one or more countries as part of a group of high or low performers in terms of the efforts made and the effects achieved in reducing inequalities. However, we could mention Poland as a good and very good performer on most of the indicators analyzed. As opposite examples, we can mention Bulgaria and Greece, for which more attention and involvement are needed in adopting measures to correct the negative trend forecast.

The key aim of the current analysis was to examine the impact of electricity production from various sources (oil, nuclear, natural gas and coal) on CO₂ emission in Pakistan by utilizing the annual data series varies from 1975–2020. The study employed the two unit root tests for the purpose of stationarity, while an asymmetric Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (NARDL) technique was applied to expose the influence of electrical energy on CO₂ emission via long-run and short-run dynamics. Findings show that via long-run and short-run the variable electricity production from oil and coal sources has a positive impact on CO₂ emission in Pakistan via positive and negative shocks. Electricity production from nuclear sources exposed the adverse impact on CO₂ emissions. Similarly, electricity production from natural gas demonstrates the positive and adversative linkage with CO₂ emission through positive and negative shocks. There is no doubt that Pakistan is still dealing with an electricity deficit because of poor energy generation in the country, but this has contributed to an increase in CO₂ emissions. To avoid additional environmental damage, the government should pursue new and major CO₂ emission reduction measures.

The issue of economic disparities within the European Union economies is not new, it is actually a topical issue. Unfortunately, the EU enlargement has determined an even stronger deepening of the regional disparities, because in the absence of adequate regional development policies, the financial instruments have proved to be ineffective. Recent studies show that the economic crisis has increased regional disparities in the European Union countries, influencing the most important regions, especially the economically less advanced ones, the significant regional differences being identified at the NUTS 3 level. Based on these issues, the present paper tries to answer the following questions: 1. How extended are the regional disparities in Romania and how did they evolve over the period 1998-2012? 2. How did the economic crisis influence disparities? Which territorial units were more affected? In order to measure regional inequalities the Hoover index was used as well as the coefficient of variation, and the indicator for assessing the level of development as well as for highlighting regional disparities was GDP per capita. The analysis and interpretation of the results provide an overview of the situation at the regional level in Romania