Exploring the effects of economic growth, and renewable and non-renewable energy consumption on China’s CO2 emissions: Evidence from a regional panel analysis

Abstract

This study explored the effects of economic growth (EG), renewable energy consumption (REC) and non-renewable energy consumption (NREC) on CO2 emissions (CE) and tested the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis at the regional levels in China. The study was based on a balanced provincial panel dataset for the period of 1995–2012. The empirical results suggested that the inverted U-shaped EKC hypothesis was not supported in the central and western regions and was barely supported in the eastern region. NREC was found to have a positive effect on CE, although this varied across the three regions, with the greatest impact being in the central region, followed by the western and eastern regions. REC had a negative impact on CE in the eastern and western regions, while the impact was weak and statistically insignificant in the central region. Furthermore, we found that REC had no significant impact on the EKC hypothesis in the three regions. Panel causality tests showed that the direction of causality in both short and long runs was mixed among regions. There were bidirectional causalities between REC, CE, and EG in the long-term for the three regions.