Abstract:
Considering diverse national contexts, there are differences in the capacity of
countries in terms of their ability to attain sustainability in its threemain dimensions.
The present study puts the economic, social, and environmental indicators faceto-
face from 19 post-communist economies across the 2006–2020 period. It
emphasizes the main vulnerabilities at the level of the analyzed countries,
concentrates on these weak points, and offers concrete explanations regarding
the main social and economic factors, exerting a negative influence on them.
Consequently, placing climate and energy, with their major components, i.e.,
energy use, energy savings, greenhouse gases, and renewable energy, at the
center of the analysis, as the major weak points of environmental wellbeing
within the analyzed group of countries, the nature of the influence of human
and economicwellbeing upon each of themis evidenced using panel data-specific
methods (pooled, fixed, and randomeffects). The general results obtained showed
the following: 1) the components of environmental wellbeing registered a different
evolution among post-communist economies; 2) climate and energy components
were the main vulnerabilities in terms of environmental sustainability; 3) these
environmental components were closely linked to both components of economic
and social dimensions; and 4) the determinants of energy use, energy savings,
greenhouse gases, and renewable energy were different in the selected group of
countries. This study draws attention to the fact that the patterns of development
applied in the group of post-communist economies seem to strengthen
sustainable goals, especially with regard to economic and human wellbeing.
Moreover, while directing its focus on the main urgent environmental
vulnerabilities and encouraging their strengthening by not putting the economic
dimension in the center of interest, it supports the theoretical perspective of
sustainable wellbeing, based on sustainability and ecological economics
