Investigating the potential of renewable energy in establishing global peace: Fresh evidence from top energy consumer countries

Abstract

Although the socio-economic determinants of terrorism are conducted by many researchers using different samples and time spans, the impact of renewable energy consumption on terrorism has been ignored for a long time. To bridge the gap, this paper aims to investigate the impact of renewable energy consumption on terrorism regarding economic growth, non-renewable energy consumption, and income inequality over the period straddling 1990 and 2019 for a panel of the USA, China, India, Iran, Germany, and Russia. We employ the CUP-FM and CUP-BC estimators to reveal the long-run relationship between variables. The empirical findings suggest that renewable energy consumption has a negative impact on terrorism. A 1% increase in renewable energy consumption decreases terrorism by 0.315% and 0.631%, according to the CUP-FM and CUP-BC estimators, respectively. Economic growth also has a negative impact on terrorism, whereas non-renewable energy consumption and income inequality positively affect terrorism. Our empirical findings highlighted that renewable energy consumption and economic growth are crucial for combating terrorism in these countries. Therefore, these countries need to improve comprehensive policies in terms of renewable energy consumption and simultaneously decrease non-renewable energy consumption and income inequality.