Assessing energy resilience and its greenhouse effect: A global perspective

Abstract

A sound and resilient global energy system can effectively guarantee normal production and green research and development activities, which have uncertain global greenhouse effect. Thus, to accurately investigate the potential impact of energy resilience on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, we first construct an energy resilience composite index based on three components (i.e., energy access, renewable energy, and energy efficiency) by employing cross-sectional data of 107 countries in 2016. Then, to explore the internal impact mechanism in the energy resilience-CO2 nexus, we divide the total effect of energy resilience on CO2 emissions into three effects: scale effect, technical effect, and composition effect. The main findings of this study show that: (1) increased energy resilience across the globe is positively associated with CO2 emissions, and three sub-indexes of energy resilience (i.e., energy access, renewable energy, and energy efficiency) affect greenhouse effect positively; (2) strong energy resilience and CO2 emissions show significant asymmetric and regional heterogeneous relationships; and (3) the positive energy resilience-CO2 nexus stems from the fact that the negative technical and composition effects of energy resilience on CO2 emissions are fully offset by the strong positive scale effect. Following the above conclusions, we propose several policy implications of strengthening energy resilience and mitigating the greenhouse effect.