Does the Energy Transition Process Decrease the Environmental Degradation in Latin American and Caribbean Countries?

Abstract

AbstractThe impact of the energy paradigm transition on environmental degradation of 18 Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) countries from 1990 to 2014 was analysed in this chapter. A panel non-linear autoregressive distributed lag (PNARDL) approach was used in the form of an unrestricted error correction model (UECM). The empirical results show that the economic growth in both the short (impacts) and long run (elasticities) has a positive effect of 0.5476 and 0.2187, respectively; the variable public capital stock positively affects the short run 0.4764 on carbon dioxide emissions. However, the positive and the negative asymmetry of the ratio of renewable energy on fossil energy in the short and long run have a negative impact of −0.0602 on positive variations, and −0.0793 on negative variations in the short run, and −0.0282 on positive variations and −0.0340 on negative variations, in the long run.KeywordsAsymmetric non-linearData analysisEconometricsEnergy transitionGlobalisationLatin American and the CaribbeanMacro panelMacroeconomicsJEL CodesF62Q43Q50