Production and consumption are both monitored in the context of progress toward a circular economy and sustainable development. In each case, the number and types of the implemented indicators are different. Thus, it is reasonable to ask about the comparability of information produced by two composite measures for equivalent research subjects: production and consumption. This is a thematic area of the EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy, as well as for responsible consumption and production, which is the 12th goal of the UN Agenda 2030. To scrutinize this problem in the European Union, this research aims to test statistically the similarity between the production and consumption composite indicators (based on Circular Economy Action Plan measures), and the responsible consumption and production composite indicators (based on the UN Agenda 2030 measures). The thesis that the application of the composite indicators generates significantly different results is not proved.

By 2050, Europe will become the first climate-neutral continent according to the vision of the European Union (EU). To tackle this challenge, the EU has scheduled the accomplishment of the 17 goals of the United Nations’s 2030 Agenda, with Goal 7 addressing the energy sector. The role of public policies is fundamental in this case; however, it is insufficient in some areas, e.g., when adopting green energy technologies. The purpose of this article is to identify the economic factors that are necessary to achieve Goal 7 of Agenda 2030. To realize the aim of this study and identify economic factors that are significant for implementing the targets of Goal 7 of the 2030 Agenda, two statistical methods were used: the Pearson linear correlation coefficient and linear regression modeling with a scatter plot to present the relationships. The results of this study confirm that in the EU, the possibility of achieving Goal 7 is dependent on the three economic determinants analyzed, i.e., GDP per capita, unemployment rate, and gross domestic spending on research and development. The analysis revealed that the impact of single economic factors on the realization of all SDG 7 targets is small because no economic factor correlates with even half of SDG 7 indicators.