Abstract
Considering the actual debate nuclear vs renewable that divides the green transition of the EU member states, this paper investigates the dynamic interactions between two sources of decarbonized energy (renewables and nuclear) and economic growth for three distinct economies: France, Spain, and Germany, all differing in their respective long-run nuclear planning. A complex methodological framework is employed to consider stationary (Augmented Dickey-Fuller test, Phillips-Perron test, Dickey-Fuller test, Elliott-Rothenberg-Stock test, Kwiatkowski-Phillips-Schmidt-Shin test, Zivot and Andrews test with structural break), cointegration (Johansen and Juselius test of cointegration, Gregory and Hansen cointegration test with breaks based on regime-trend shifts), long-run convergence (Vector Error Correction Model), causality (Granger causality test, Toda-Yamamoto non-causality test, and variance analysis (Impulse Response Functions) Empirical results for the period 1983–2019 fail to support the existence of statistical causality between renewable energy use and economic growth in France and Spain, which is congruent with the “neutral hypothesis”. Besides, while a weak one-way link is revealed from renewable energy use to GDP in Germany only, economic growth is found to substantially trigger nuclear energy consumption in Spain but not vice versa, thus corroborating the “growth hypothesis”. Accordingly, country-specific insights are provided to deploy low-carbon sectoral facilities in Spain, enhance the channels of radioactive waste treatment in France, and secure the nuclear phase-out in Germany.
Highlights
For the past decades, countries have been facing increasing energy challenges
This paper investigates the dynamic interactions operating between two sources of decarbonized energy and economic growth for three distinct economies: France, Spain, and Germany, all differing in their respective long-run nuclear planning
Before conducting the comparative nexus analysis, a multivariate framework comprising production factors (GFCF, employment, and exports of goods and services), nuclear and renewable energy consumptions, and Gross Domestic Products is set with series spanning the 1983–2019 period
Summary
Countries have been facing increasing energy challenges. The deployment of secure supplies of electricity follows a need to meet the booming energy demands yet recorded everywhere. A few consensus has been reached on how massively upgrading power grids over the medium-term without jeopardizing their climate targets. It is admitted that, unless governments commit to comprehensive measures, global warming is expected to induce massive land and biodiversity damages, threaten coastal populations and hinder food security at the Nuclear Power and the Growth global scale (Stern, 2006; IPCC, 2014). To implement changes in future energy paths, a in-depth understanding of the today’s energy features and policies is required
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