scholarly journals The Causal Relationship between Renewable Energy Consumption, Economic Growth and Carbon Dioxide Emissions: Evidence from Middle East and North Africa

Author(s):  
Ebru Çağlayan Akay ◽  
Raziya Abdiyeva ◽  
Zamira Oskonbaeva

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.

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 540-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan P Thombs

This cross-national study employs a time-series cross-sectional Prais-Winsten regression model with panel-corrected standard errors to examine the relationship between renewable energy consumption and economic growth, and its impact on total carbon dioxide emissions and carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP. Findings indicate that renewable energy consumption has its largest negative effect on total carbon emissions and carbon emissions per unit of GDP in low-income countries. Contrary to conventional wisdom, renewable energy has little influence on total carbon dioxide emissions or carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP at high levels of GDP per capita. The findings of this study indicate the presence of a “renewable energy paradox,” where economic growth becomes increasingly coupled with carbon emissions at high levels of renewable energy, and the negative effect of economic growth on carbon emissions per unit of GDP lessens as renewable energy increases. These findings suggest that public policy should be directed at deploying renewable energy in developing countries, while focusing on non-or-de-growth strategies accompanied with renewable energy in developed nations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 7328
Author(s):  
Saeed Solaymani

Iran, endowed with abundant renewable and non-renewable energy resources, particularly non-renewable resources, faces challenges such as air pollution, climate change and energy security. As a leading exporter and consumer of fossil fuels, it is also attempting to use renewable energy as part of its energy mix toward energy security and sustainability. Due to its favorable geographic characteristics, Iran has diverse and accessible renewable sources, which provide appropriate substitutes to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Therefore, this study aims to examine trends in energy demand, policies and development of renewable energies and the causal relationship between renewable and non-renewable energies and economic growth using two methodologies. This study first reviews the current state of energy and energy policies and then employs Granger causality analysis to test the relationships between the variables considered. Results showed that renewable energy technologies currently do not have a significant and adequate role in the energy supply of Iran. To encourage the use of renewable energy, especially in electricity production, fuel diversification policies and development program goals were introduced in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Diversifying energy resources is a key pillar of Iran’s new plan. In addition to solar and hydropower, biomass from the municipal waste from large cities and other agricultural products, including fruits, can be used to generate energy and renewable sources. While present policies indicate the incorporation of sustainable energy sources, further efforts are needed to offset the use of fossil fuels. Moreover, the study predicts that with the production capacity of agricultural products in 2018, approximately 4.8 billion liters of bioethanol can be obtained from crop residues and about 526 thousand tons of biodiesel from oilseeds annually. Granger’s causality analysis also shows that there is a unidirectional causal relationship between economic growth to renewable and non-renewable energy use. Labor force and gross fixed capital formation cause renewable energy consumption, and nonrenewable energy consumption causes renewable energy consumption.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document