Renewable energy plays a crucial role in increasing economic growth while reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The aim of this study is to examine the interaction between renewable energy consumption, economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions for selected Middle East and North Africa countries. For this aim, panel vector autoregression approach are used in the study.
The annual data used in this study cover the period from 1988 to 2010 for Middle East and North Africa countries. Firstly, second generation unit root test are used to investigate stationarity properties of the variables and second generation panel cointegration test is applied to the data under consideration because of the cross-sectional dependence. Then a panel causality approach is proposed to examine the causal relationship between the variables. Finally, panel vector autoregression model, impulse-response and variance decomposition analysis are applied using generalized moment methods.
The finding of this study shows that there is a bi-directional causality between growth and renewable energy consumption, which is consistent with the feedback hypothesis in terms of the energy consumption-growth nexus. It is found the evidence of unidirectional causality from carbon dioxide emissions to renewable energy consumption and from growth to carbon dioxide emissions. It is also found that the responses of growth to a shock of energy consumption are positive and the impact of renewable energy consumption on carbon dioxide emissions is negative.
A Roadmap for Renewable Energy in the Middle East and North Africa
