Abstract
The goal of this study was to contribute to the ongoing debate on the relationship between renewable energy (RE) and CO2 emissions. In particular, we explored the link between RE and CO2 emissions in a sample of major renewable energy-consuming countries for the period 2000–2015. Therefore, the major contribution of this study was to answer the question of whether a substantial shift to renewable energy consumption will lead to lower CO2 emissions. Using the two-step generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator, our empirical results suggested that RE has a significant negative effect on CO2 emissions. For example, a one percentage point increase in RE leads to a 0.5% decrease in CO2 emissions.
Highlights
According to World Bank, over the past three decades, the global level of CO2 emissions has increased by nearly 70% from 20.6 million kt in 1990 to 34.0 million kt in 2018 [1]
The authors using data for 15 major renewable energy-consuming countries found that a 1% increase in RE use leads to an up to 0.28% decrease in CO2 emissions
The total energy consists of renewable and nonrenewable energy [41]; 84% of the world’s primary energy consumption is used by oil, coal, and natural gas, which is considered nonrenewable energy. This shows that the use of nonrenewable energy facilitates the process of production in every field but is the leading factor of environmental degradation
Summary
According to World Bank, over the past three decades, the global level of CO2 emissions has increased by nearly 70% from 20.6 million kt in 1990 to 34.0 million kt in 2018 [1]. There has been growing scholarly interest in understanding the causes of CO2 emissions across countries. The empirical research on the determinants of carbon dioxide emissions can be classified into three different groups. The first group explores the relationship between economic variables such as GDP per capita, trade openness, foreign direct investment, financial development, and CO2 emissions [2,3,4]. Extant research suggests that social trust [5], cultural values [6], and cognitive abilities [7] are significantly related to CO2 emissions across countries. The third strand of research on the causes of CO2 emissions focuses on energy consumption [8]. Another sub stream of literature in the field of environmental research has evolved that explores the link between renewable energy and CO2 emissions
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