How do economic freedom, trade freedom, and digitization influence renewable energy consumption in G20 nations: What is the role of innovation?

Testing environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis: The role of renewable and non-renewable energy consumption and trade in OECD countries

To date, a sufficient number of studies have dealt with the effect of financial development on energy consumption. Yet, most of these studies have neglected diversification between renewable and non-renewable energy consumption. In fact, financial development may affect renewable energy consumption differently than non-renewable energy consumption. This is because renewable energy production necessitates high-cost investments. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to estimate the impact of financial development on renewable and non-renewable energy consumption in 37 OECD countries by employing the one-step system generalized method of moments (GMM) for the period 2002–2015. The findings statistically proved that financial development is positively linked with renewable energy consumption, but it is not related to non-renewable energy consumption. This paper also confirmed the existence of a negative correlation between the openness index and renewable energy consumption with non-renewable energy consumption. Intuitively, it was expected that renewable energy production engages in high-cost investments compared to non-renewable energy production. Thus, renewable energy consumption is more responsive to a solid and well-structured financial market than non-renewable energy consumption.

Renewable and non-renewable energy consumption in Bangladesh: The relative influencing profiles of economic factors, urbanization, physical infrastructure and institutional quality

Purpose This study aims to examine the impact of renewable energy consumption and non-renewable energy consumption on industrial growth in India using time-series data from 1991 to 2021. Design/methodology/approach The methodology used a systematic approach comprising unit root tests to evaluate the stationarity of the variables, the Autoregressive Distributed Lag bound test to assess how both types of energy contribute to industrial sector development and an error correction model to identify short-term adjustments toward long-term equilibrium. Diagnostic tests are adopted to assess the model’s robustness and model stability and the Granger causality test is used to determine the direction of causation between energy consumption and industrial growth. Findings The findings reveal that both renewable energy consumption and non-renewable energy consumption support industrial growth but fossil fuels have a greater impact. Meanwhile, the study discovers unidirectional causality running from energy consumption to industrialization. Research limitations/implications The findings suggest that India should make greater use of renewable energy. The country should invest in renewable energy storage and infrastructure and implement energy efficiency standards to expedite the move toward renewable energy. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there are lack of studies that have observed the impact of renewable energy and non-renewable energy consumption together on industrial growth in the Indian context.

The developing countries rely heavily on imports of capital goods to spur economic growth. When the economy grows, energy consumption rises, adversely impacting climate change. The low levels of renewable energy share in total energy consumption, developing nations confront a difficult task in achieving the SDGs targets related to an increase in renewable energy share and access to affordable, reliable, and modern energy. Finding solutions to increase renewable energy usage is critical. International trade is an unavoidable part of development, prompting us to consider the impact of imports on renewable energy usage. This study explores the effects of imports of capital goods from China, EU and USA on renewable energy consumption in developing countries by using panel data from 20 countries spanning 2000–2018. It is found that capital goods imported from China in developing countries negatively impact renewable energy consumption while imports from EU have a positive impact on renewable energy consumption. However, in the case of US it is found negative but insignificant. The role of economic, social, and political globalization is explored, and it is found that three types of globalization are positively and significantly linked with renewable energy consumption. Thus, this study recommends that trade policies complement domestic efforts toward increasing renewable energy production and consumption in developing countries.

The objective of this study is to explore the influence of the real income (GDP), renewable energy consumption and non-renewable energy consumption on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions for the United States of America (USA) in the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) model for the period 1980-2014. The Zivot-Andrews unit root test with a structural break and the Clemente-Montanes-Reyes unit root test with a structural break report that the analyzed variables become stationary at first-differences. The Gregory-Hansen cointegration test with a structural break and the bounds testing for cointegration in the presence of a structural break show CO2 emissions, the real income, the quadratic real income, renewable and non-renewable energy consumption are cointegrated. The long-run estimates obtained from the ARDL model indicate that increases in renewable energy consumption mitigate environmental degradation whereas increases in non-renewable energy consumption contribute to CO2 emissions. In addition, the EKC hypothesis is not valid for the USA. Since we use time-series econometric approaches that account for structural break in the data, findings of this study are robust, reliable and accurate. The US government is advised to put more weights on renewable sources in energy mix, to support and encourage the use and adoption of renewable energy and clean technologies, and to increase the public awareness of renewable energy for lower levels of emissions.

We examine the relationship between renewable and non-renewable energy consumption and economic growth in the United States. While the regime-dependent Granger causality test results for the non-renewable energy consumption and economic growth suggest bi-directional causality in both regimes, we cannot validate any causality between renewable energy consumption and economic growth. The US meets its energy demand from non-renewable sources; as such, renewable energy consumption does not seem to affect economic growth. Given the efficiency and productivity of renewable energy investments, we conclude that it is worthwhile to consider renewable energy inputs to replace fossil fuels given potential benefits in terms of global warming and climate change concerns. In this regard, increasing the R&D investments in the renewable energy sectors, increases in productivity and profitability of renewable energy investments are likely to accrue benefits in the long run.

This study investigates the role of energy imports in domestic production function in the case of 15 energy-importing countries for the period of 1995–2015. Apart from energy imports, renewable energy consumption, non-renewable energy consumption, capital, trade openness, and urbanization are included in the growth model. In doing so, long-run elasticity coefficients are estimated with the Dynamic Seemingly Unrelated Regressions (DSUR) model after determining the cointegration relationship between the variables. In addition, for robustness checks, Panel Correlated Standard Errors (PCSE) and Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS) estimators are applied. Our results show that renewable energy consumption, non-renewable energy consumption, trade openness, and capital have a positive effect on economic growth. Energy imports negatively affect economic growth. The Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality analysis reveals a bidirectional causality relationship between renewable energy consumption, capital, trade openness, urbanization, and economic growth. A unidirectional causality relationship exists from economic growth to non-renewable energy consumption and energy imports. This analysis can be interpreted as having a negative impact on economic growth by putting pressure on the current account deficit due to energy imports. Therefore, investments in the renewable energy sector will play an important role in economic growth.

Energy uncertainty, geopolitical conflict, and militarization matters for Renewable and non-renewable energy development: Perspectives from G7 economies

Renewable and non-renewable energy consumption-growth nexus: Evidence from a panel error correction model

This paper examines the long-term and short-term relationships between renewable energy consumption, output and export, and CO2 emissions in China over the period 1990–2020 from the perspective of industry and agriculture using econometric methods. The results of the study found that there is a long-run relationship and there is a causality between these variables, indicating that renewable energy consumption, output, and export are related to CO2 emissions. Specifically, from a long-term perspective, the results of co-integration and causality reveal that there is a two-way causal relationship between renewable energy consumption, output, export, and CO2 emissions, supporting the feedback hypothesis; that is, output and export have an adverse impact on the environment, while renewable energy consumption has a favorable impact on the environment. In the short term, there is a direct or indirect one-way causal relationship between export, CO2 emissions, and renewable energy consumption, which supports the growth hypothesis. The impulse response analysis has further verified the causality test results and supported this hypothesis. However, there is a strong negative correlation between industrial and agricultural export and renewable energy consumption, which will cause the use of renewable energy to fail to meet the peak demand for industrial and agricultural export in the short term. Conversely, large amounts of fossil fuels will be consumed to meet output and export demand. Therefore, on the road to social, economic, and environmental sustainability, it is necessary to consider the impact of economic growth and energy consumption (renewable and non-renewable energy) of related industries on CO2 emissions, which also provides a strong basis for the development and reduction of China’s renewable energy and the long-term implementation of the emission control policy.

China's renewable energy consumption was 6.37 EJ in 2018, making it the world's largest renewable energy consumer. Exploring the economic and social driving factors behind the dynamic evolution of renewable energy consumption in China not only serve China better development of renewable energy, but also has implications for other developing countries. Existing research was limited to apparent consumption based on static geographic boundaries, and ignored the embodied renewable energy consumption in trade, although China is the largest trade exporter and the second trade importer. This work extended the existing research to account production-based and consumption-based renewable energy consumption applying the multi-region input-output model and analyzed the embodied renewable energy flows in China's international trade. Furthermore, this paper adopted structural decomposition analysis to explore the driving factors of renewable energy production and consumption from consumption coefficient, production structure and final demand. The results show that, firstly, as the net embodied renewable energy importer, China's the renewable energy consumption on the production-based increased from 1.08 E+ 06 TJ to 6.79 E+ 06 TJ, and on the consumption-based increased from 1.08 E+ 06 TJ to 7.13 E+ 06 TJ. Secondly, major of embodied renewable energy came from China's trade with developed economies but the pattern of embodied renewable energy was undergoing change. Thirdly, the decomposition results showed that energy structure and final consumption were the leading drivers in China's renewable energy consumption growth. For further expansion of its renewable energy, policymaking should pay more attention on the adjustment and optimization of energy consumption structure and industrial structure to promote production side from sustainable consumption pattern.

India's sustainable development goals consist of higher economic growth through large investments on the one hand and ambitious carbon emission reduction plans through increased renewables on the other. It needs to be seen if the two policies related to capital formation and energy transitioning to renewables complement each other or if they have been divergent in the case of India. This paper studies the dynamic association between carbon dioxide emissions, economic growth, renewable energy (RE) consumption, and gross capital formation and tests for the existence of Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis for India over the time period 1970-2018. It also tries to see if there is any possible conflict between the economic and energy goals of the country by augmenting the interaction term between renewable energy consumption and gross capital formation in the EKC framework. The empirical results not only confirm long-run relationship among the underlying variables but also indicate an "N"-shaped EKC in the long run for India which is a departure from the traditional inverted U-shaped EKC hypothesis. Renewable energy consumption is found to reduce emissions, whereas gross capital formation and the interaction term between renewable energy consumption and gross capital formation are found to raise emissions in the long run. The study concludes that India needs to align its economic policy of "Make in India" with its energy policy so that investments under the former facilitate extensive penetration, adaptation, and usage of renewable energy. A policy dichotomy between the two goals may defeat India's Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) objective of drastic reduction in carbon dioxide emissions through increased renewables by 2030.

In the past decades, renewable energy consumption has grown considerably because of environmental degradation caused by non-renewable energy consumption. This research aims to find the causal link between renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, human capital, and non-renewable energy price for the 53 most renewable energy-consuming countries worldwide (hydroelectric) during the period 1990-2017. We use data collected from the World Bank ( http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/world-development-indicators , 2018) and Statistical Review of World Energy ( https://www.bp.com/ , 2018). We test simultaneously two types of regressions in order to measure the degree of elasticity of the two types of energy by using econometric techniques for panel data. The results of the GLS models indicate that human capital has a stronger significant effect on renewable energy consumption at the global level, in the middle high-income countries and low-middle income countries, compared with non-renewable energy consumption. Besides, at the global level, there is a positive and statistically significant relationship between the non-renewable energy price and the two types of energy consumption. There is a long-run consumption of both types of energy. On the other hand, the one-way relationship between human capital and non-renewable energy price and renewable energy consumption is stronger than the relationship with non-renewable energy consumption. The policy implications derived from this study should be designed to promote human capital development in order to promote renewable energy consumption and increase the investment in renewable energy sources to guarantee their access to lower prices that reduce non-renewable energy consumption.

This study investigates the impacts of income, (renewable and non-renewable) energy consumption, trade, and financial development on carbon dioxide emissions in Turkey for the 1965-2015 period by employing thenon-linear autoregressive distributed lag method. Results show that non-renewable and renewable energy consumption, and trade openness have asymmetric impacts on pollution in long-run, while only renewable energy consumption has asymmetric impact on emissions in short-run. Results further reveal that the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis is not valid in Turkey. Moreover, both financial development and trade positively affect emissions. Additionally, in long-run, positive shocks in renewable and non-renewable energy consumption increase emissions, but the impact of renewable energy consumption is infinitesimally small compared to the impact of non-renewable energy consumption. However, negative shocks in renewable energy consumption increase emissions, whereas negative developments in non-renewable energy consumption decrease emissions. Further, in short-run, positive developments in renewable energy consumptiondecrease emissions, and negative developments in non-renewable energy consumption have the same influence on emissions. In accordance with the findings, some policy suggestions are proposed.