Effects of globalization, foreign direct investment and economic growth on renewable electricity consumption

Abstract

Renewable energy has been seen as a viable solution to the problems of environmental degradation and the energy crisis. This study examines the long – and short–run linkages between economic globalization, foreign direct investment (FDI), economic growth, and renewable electricity consumption in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries. Therefore, this study uses the Pooled Mean Group (PMG) autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) technique to measure the relationship between constructs based on data collected from 2000 to 2020. The overall results show the collaborative integration of Belt and Road (BRI) countries in terms of globalization, economic growth, and renewable electricity utilization. The results show that there is a long-term positive relationship between FDI and renewable electricity consumption, but a negative relationship in the short term. Furthermore, economic growth is positively correlated with renewable electricity consumption in the long run and negatively correlated in the short run. This study suggests that the governments of BRI countries should encourage globalization by improving technology and knowledge related to renewable electricity consumption in all areas.