Renewable energy sources play a crucial role in sustainable development strategies, addressing environmental protection, energy security, economic growth, and enhancing quality of life. Renewable energy sources are significantly less damaging to the environment compared to traditional energy sources, as they help lower greenhouse gas emissions, decrease air and water pollution, and consequently, limit environmental degradation. The study helped formulate the following research goals: assessment of changes in the use of renewable energy sources and the degree of environmental degradation in the European Union countries, and comparison of the spatial differentiation of the EU countries in terms of the use of renewable energy sources and the degree of environmental degradation, taking into account both indicated criteria. The survey covers the years 2015, 2019, and 2021. The article highlights the important role of analytical methods in the analysis of renewable energy consumption and its impact on the environment. The Self-Organizing Map was used for grouping the European Union countries based on renewable energy sources’ levels and environmental degradation, allowing the identification of patterns and clusters. The results showed that the Scandinavian countries are leading the way in renewable energy sources and low environmental degradation, while the Eastern European countries are struggling, with a low share of renewable energy sources and high degradation.

The feminisation of poverty is a complex, multidimensional phenomenon related to gender inequality in various aspects of life. Women are disproportionately affected by the gender pay gap, unequal intra-household resource distribution, unpaid domestic work, caregiving responsibilities, single motherhood, employment or educational barriers, violence, gender discrimination, and period poverty. Combating poverty and inequality are among the main goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 25 September 2015, and their great importance is further highlighted in the preamble of the resolution outlining the plan to transform our world by 2030. This study uses SDG indicators from the Eurostat database to assess the feminisation of poverty in the EU-27 member states in 2020 based on selected diagnostic characteristics mainly related to SDG 1 and SDG 5; they are also related to other goals due to the cross-cutting nature of the topic. The characteristics were transformed to reflect gender gaps and afterwards unitised with a veto threshold indicating gender balance. These were then used to calculate a synthetic taxonomic measure, allowing for linear ordering and classification of countries based on the feminisation of poverty levels. The study confirmed significant feminisation of poverty in the EU-27, with a few aspects showing masculinisation. High feminisation of poverty was observed in both emerging and advanced economies.

The article presents the problem of local socio-economic development. An illustration of theoretical considerations is an empirical study on evaluation of the West Pomeranian Voivodship districts' development since Poland's accession to the European Union. In the research, a taxonomic measure of development was used to assess the level and rate of districts' development. The empirical study was carried out in four main stages: collection of initial characteristics, reduction of the initial set of diagnostic features (to ensure their highest diagnostic value), calculations of synthetic measures using the modified TOPSIS procedure and construction of rankings of districts on that basis, creation of typological groups of districts characterized by a similar level and the pace of development. The study showed the existence of large diversification of economic development of the surveyed districts. The highest level of socio-economic development in both: 2004 and 2017 was characteristic for the Kamieński district and the lowest level of development in 2004 was observed in the Wałecki district and in 2017 in the Gryficki district. The highest pace of changes in the level of socio-economic development between 2004 and 2017 was recorded for the Białogardzki district, while the lowest for the Świdwiński district.

Prace Naukowe Uniwersytetu Ekonomicznego we Wrocławiu = Research Papers of Wrocław University of Economics, 2020; vol.64, nr 9, s. 100-118