Regulatory Frameworks for Renewable Energy Sources

Abstract

Fossil fuels are the main source of energy worldwide and constituted about 87 % of total primary energy consumption in 2012. A growing number of researches show that there is a strong relation between climate change and the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions which are produced through energy production and consumption. Ongoing concerns about climate change have made renewable energy sources an important component of the world energy consumption portfolio. It is projected that renewable energy will have the highest growth rate among world energy sources. Many scholars applied different methodologies to examine the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth in order to analyze the impacts of energy policy. Also, carbon emission savings made by renewable energy usage have previously been analyzed by applying the life-cycle analysis method. Based on previous researches, economic growth promotes environment quality after a certain period. This study is a review of the effectiveness of governance-related parameters. The impacts of renewable energy development on carbon emission reduction is analyzed. Furthermore, we examine the effectiveness of technological innovation and market regulations applied for renewable energy deployments. Empirical results show that climate change mitigation could be affected more by governance-related parameters than economic development.