En route to attaining a clean sustainable ecosystem: a nexus between solar energy technology, economic expansion and carbon emissions in China

This paper probes the nexus between solar energy technology, carbon intensity of energy structures, economic expansion, and carbon emissions (CO2) throughout 1990-2017 in China. The study utilized the vector auto-regressive (VAR) approach to co-integration testing and vector error-correction models to identify the most effective method for reducing CO2 emissions. Results from the Granger causality (GC) suggest a unidirectional causality between the variables. The test of impulse response function (IRF) constituted in the VAR technique was also applied in this study. The results indicate that energy structure intensity and economic expansion positively affect carbon emissions, while solar energy technology negatively affects carbon emissions. Simultaneous IRF analysis demonstrated that solar energy technology, energy structure carbon intensity, and economic expansion all have long-term effects on carbon emissions. The study concluded that when the economy expands, it influences CO2 emissions. Also, there exists a positive impact on CO2 emissions from the number of solar patents, but was seen to be decreasing gradually. The policy implications were also stated.