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This chapter tests theoretically and empirically the existence of a stable relationship between energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Based on microeconomics and physics, a model has been specified and applied to annual data for twenty countries, which representing 61 percent of the world’s population in 2018, over the period 1995–2015. The data are from the International Energy Agency (2019) and econometric techniques including panel data and causality tests have been used. The results indicate that there is a causal relationship between energy consumption and CO2 emissions. In general, consumers cannot directly change emissions caused by production processes, but they can act on emissions caused by their own domestic energy consumption. Approximately three quarters of domestic energy consumption is due to heating and domestic hot water consumption. Taking into account the lower emissions and the lower economic cost of the initial investment, four potential energy systems have been selected for use in heating and domestic hot water. Their social returns have been assessed across nine of the twenty countries in the sample over a lifecycle of 25 years from 2018: France, Portugal, Ireland, Spain, Iceland, Germany, United Kingdom, Morocco and the United States. Cost-benefit analysis techniques have been used for this purpose and the results indicate that the use of thermal water, where applicable, is the most socially profitable system among the proposed systems, followed by natural gas. The least socially profitable systems are those using electricity.

An NBM is a market form in that it is made of institutions and business models. It arises in a particular context where abundant novelty issuing from the producer side meets substantial search costs and evaluation difficulties on the consumer side. In a NBM consumers don’t necessarily know what they are searching for. These difficulties on the demand side are specifically caused by the fact that novel goods, which are experience goods, often require new “rules for choice” as new suites of evaluative criteria.

The market is not the only spontaneous order. Hayek himself drew attention to language and English common law as other examples, noting that they had first been identified as such by Scottish Enlightenment philosophers such as Adam Smith and Adam Ferguson. Hence, such orders “are made with equal blindness to the future; and nations stumble upon establishments, which are indeed the results of human action, but not the execution of any human design” (Ferguson, 1782, sec. II). In the 20th century, Michael Polanyi used the term spontaneous order for the polycentric feedback system that explains the growth of scientific knowledge (Polanyi, 1962).

The first Austrian school was preoccupied with the nature of capital, its time dimension, and the necessity of interest. The second school also focused on economic dynamics, but with an orientation toward issues related to entrepreneurial activity as well as the use of information and knowledge in economic evolution. The third Austrian school, which was organized around Karl Menger's mathematical colloquium in Vienna, clarified the necessary and sufficient conditions for static and dynamic economic equilibriums. In addition, it created the foundations of economic game and negotiation theories.

While some EU countries have successfully reduced unemployment and increased employment, others could only accomplish partial success; therefore, unemployment rates across the EU are still much higher than in the 1970s. There are still large regional differences in terms of unemployment despite considerable region-specific transactions to counter-act such differences. Different employment outcomes are the consequence of many factors – such as the demographic trends, the general economic situation, the structure of the economy, the existing welfare and labour market situation, or the level of employment protection – but it may also be the outcome of the effectiveness of the local labour market measures. Local action is important for effective employment policies. Where national policies and implementation measures are sufficiently flexible and adjustable, local level actors can develop integrated approaches to economic growth, maximizing employment opportunities and helping to lessen inequalities and social exclusion in their communities. Mobilization and activity of local communities in combating unemployment are essential to translate national and regional strategies into action on the ground. Local actors purportedly best understand local conditions, aspirations, and needs. There is no magic button for overcoming obstacles and problems, but there are some positive experiences that can be applied or adjusted. The chapter describes the activities and experiences of EU and local initiatives and the problems of institutional organizations.