scholarly journals Clarifying the Relationship Among Green Investment, Clean Energy Consumption, Carbon Emissions, and Economic Growth: A Provincial Panel Analysis of China

Author(s):  
Yuanyuan Wan ◽  
Ni Sheng

Abstract Green investment considers energy conservation and environmental protection as its main goals. Few studies based on simultaneous equation models have evaluated the relationships between green investment, clean energy consumption, carbon emissions, and economic growth. We use panel data from 30 provinces and cities in China from 2003 to 2017 to establish a simultaneous equation model that can evaluate these crucial relationships. At the national level, green investment has a significantly positive impact on clean energy consumption and economic growth; however, it has no significant effect on carbon dioxide emissions. Moreover, there is a U-shaped relationship between economic growth and clean energy consumption, as well as economic growth and CO2 emissions. When the per capita GDP is greater than 105735.92 (RMB), the use of clean energy will increase and CO2 emissions will decrease, thereby benefitting the environment and economy. Additionally, the impacts of green investment on clean energy differ in China’s eastern, central, and western regions, and the non-linear relationships between economic growth and clean energy consumption in these regions also differ. Based on these findings, countermeasures and suggestions are proposed to spur development within different regions.

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (19) ◽  
pp. 7965
Author(s):  
Oluyomi A. Osobajo ◽  
Afolabi Otitoju ◽  
Martha Ajibola Otitoju ◽  
Adekunle Oke

This study explored the effect of energy consumption and economic growth on CO2 emissions. The relationship between energy consumption, economic growth and CO2 emissions was assessed using regression analysis (the pooled OLS regression and fixed effects methods), Granger causality and panel cointegration tests. Data from 70 countries between 1994–2013 were analysed. The result of the Granger causality tests revealed that the study variables (population, capital stock and economic growth) have a bi-directional causal relationship with CO2 emissions, while energy consumption has a uni-directional relationship. Likewise, the outcome of the cointegration tests established that a long-run relationship exists among the study variables (energy consumption and economic growth) with CO2 emissions. However, the pooled OLS and fixed methods both showed that energy consumption and economic growth have a significant positive impact on CO2 emissions. Hence, this study supports the need for a global transition to a low carbon economy primarily through climate finance, which refers to local, national, or transnational financing, that may be drawn from public, private and alternative sources of financing. This will help foster large-scale investments in clean energy, that are required to significantly reduce CO2 emissions.


Author(s):  
Shemelis Kebede Hundie

Policy makers need to know the relationship among energy use, economic growth and environmental quality in order to formulate rigorous policy for economic growth and environmental sustainability. This study analyzes the nexus among energy consumption, affluence, financial development, trade openness, urbanization, population and CO2 emissions in Ethiopia using data from 1970–2014. The ARDL cointegration results show that cointegration exists among the variables. Energy consumption, population, trade openness and economic growth have positive impact on CO2 in the long-run while economic growth squared reduces CO2 emissions which confirms that the EKC hypothesis holds in Ethiopia. In the short-run urbanization and energy consumption intensify environmental degradation. Toda-Yamamoto granger causality results indicate the bi-directional causality between energy consumption and CO2 emissions, CO2 emissions and urbanization. Financial development, population and urbanization cause economic growth while economic growth causes CO2 emissions. Causality runs from energy consumption to financial development, urbanization and population which in turn cause economic growth. From the result, CO2 emissions extenuation policy in Ethiopia should focus on environmentally friendly growth, enhancing consumption of cleaner energy, incorporating the impact of population, urbanization, trade and financial development.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 3165
Author(s):  
Eva Litavcová ◽  
Jana Chovancová

The aim of this study is to examine the empirical cointegration, long-run and short-run dynamics and causal relationships between carbon emissions, energy consumption and economic growth in 14 Danube region countries over the period of 1990–2019. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing methodology was applied for each of the examined variables as a dependent variable. Limited by the length of the time series, we excluded two countries from the analysis and obtained valid results for the others for 26 of 36 ARDL models. The ARDL bounds reliably confirmed long-run cointegration between carbon emissions, energy consumption and economic growth in Austria, Czechia, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Economic growth and energy consumption have a significant impact on carbon emissions in the long-run in all of these four countries; in the short-run, the impact of economic growth is significant in Austria. Likewise, when examining cointegration between energy consumption, carbon emissions, and economic growth in the short-run, a significant contribution of CO2 emissions on energy consumptions for seven countries was found as a result of nine valid models. The results contribute to the information base essential for making responsible and informed decisions by policymakers and other stakeholders in individual countries. Moreover, they can serve as a platform for mutual cooperation and cohesion among countries in this region.


Author(s):  
Nicholas M. Odhiambo

In this paper we examine the causal relationship between CO2 emissions and economic growth in South Africa - using the newly developed ARDL-Bounds testing approach. We incorporate energy consumption in a bivariate causality setting between CO2 emissions and economic growth, thereby creating a simple trivariate model. Our empirical results show that there is a distinct unidirectional causal flow from economic growth to carbon emissions in South Africa. We also find that energy consumption Granger-causes both carbon emissions and economic growth. We recommend that energy conservation policies, as well as appropriate forms of renewable energy, should be explored in South Africa in order to enable the country to reduce its carbon emission footprint without necessarily sacrificing its output growth. The results apply irrespective of whether the causality is estimated in the short or in the long run.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 12444
Author(s):  
Qusai Mohammad Qasim Alabed ◽  
Fathin Faizah Said ◽  
Zulkefly Abdul Karim ◽  
Mohd Azlan Shah Zaidi ◽  
Mohammed Daher Alshammary

This study provides new evidence regarding the nonlinear relationship between energy consumption and economic growth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region for the 1990–2014 period. The empirical estimation is conducted using a dynamic panel threshold model. We found one threshold in the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth and one threshold in the relationship between carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and economic growth. The results indicate that energy consumption positively and significantly affects economic growth in the low energy consumption regime. In contrast, it has a negative and significant impact on economic growth in the high energy consumption regime. Moreover, CO2 emissions are positively and significantly related to economic growth in the low regime of CO2 emissions. Nevertheless, the relationship between CO2 emissions and economic growth in the high CO2 emissions regime is negative and significant. Therefore, policymakers should implement other effective energy policies, such as stricter regulations on CO2 emissions, increase energy efficiency, and replace fossil fuels with cleaner energy sources to avoid unnecessary CO2 emissions and combat global warming. Future studies should identify the root causes of failures and issues in real time for inflation and link the energy–growth nexus to achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Agenda, Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (24) ◽  
pp. 10432
Author(s):  
Qingwei Shi ◽  
Hong Ren ◽  
Weiguang Cai ◽  
Jingxin Gao

The improvement of the energy and carbon emission efficiency of activities in the building sector is the key to China’s realization of the Paris Agreement. We can explore effective emission abatement approaches for the building sector by evaluating the carbon emissions and energy efficiency of construction activities, measuring the emission abatement potential of construction activities across the country and regions, and measuring the marginal abatement cost (MAC) of China and various regions. This study calculates the energy and carbon emissions performance of the building sector of 30 provinces and regions in China from 2005 to 2015, measures the dynamic changes in the energy-saving potential and carbon emission performance of the building sector, conducts relevant verification, and estimates the MAC of the building sector by using the slacks-based measure-directional distance function. The level of energy consumption per unit of the building sector of China has been decreasing yearly, but the energy structure has changed minimally (considering that clean energy is used). The total factor technical efficiency of the building sector of various provinces, cities, and regions is generally low, as verified in the evaluation of the energy-saving and emission abatement potential of the building sector of China. The energy saving and emission abatement of the building sector of China have great potential—that is, in approximately 50% of the total emissions of the building sector of China. In particular, Northeast and North China account for more than 50% of the total energy-saving and emission abatement potential. The study of the CO2 emissions and MAC of the building sector indicates that the larger the CO2 emissions are, the smaller MAC will be. The emission abatement efficiency is proportional to MAC. Based on this research, it can be more equitable and effective in formulating provincial emission reduction policy targets at the national level, and can maximize the contribution of the building sector of various provinces to the national carbon emission reduction.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 4268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bahareh Oryani ◽  
Yoonmo Koo ◽  
Shahabaldin Rezania

This research attempts to evaluate the impact of renewable electricity generation mix on economic growth and CO2 emissions in Iran from 1980 to 2016. In this regard, by using EViews 10, the Structural Vector Autoregressive model (SVAR) is estimated by imposing the Blanchard and Quah long-run restrictions. The yearly data on real Gross Domestic Production (GDP), the share of electricity generation from renewable sources, and carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) caused by liquid, solid, and gaseous fuels were used. The positive impact of one standard deviation shock of increasing the share of renewable electricity on economic growth was confirmed by using Impulse Response Function (IRF). Contrary to the expectation, the share of renewable electricity in the energy mix is not at a desirable level to lower CO2 emissions, which partly could be explained by the dominant role of fossil fuel in Iran (as an energy-driven country). Moreover, the findings of Variance Decomposition (VD) verified the low share of electricity generated by renewable energy in explaining forecast error variations in economic growth and CO2 emissions. It indicates that in this stage of development, increasing the share of renewable electricity could not be considered as an appropriate strategy to control environmental issues. Therefore, initiating and implementing environmental policies could be considered as the most proper policies to lower CO2 emissions and to achieve the goal of sustainable development.


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