Spatial spillover effects of renewable energy transition, innovation, and energy efficiency on carbon emissions in Europe

Can CDM projects trigger host countries’ innovation in renewable energy? Evidence of firm-level dataset from China

Chemists and other scientists are expected to play a key role as the world implements the new climate change deal that governments clinched in Paris on Dec. 12 (See page 30). The historic Paris pact includes commitments by 185 countries and the European Union to control emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. It signals a shift away from a world economy marked by unfettered release of carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels. The agreement is expected to drive innovation in renewable energy, battery storage, and energy efficiency. It also opens the door for more nuclear energy and further development and deployment of technologies to capture and sequester CO2. American Chemical Society Executive Director and CEO Thomas M. Connelly Jr. says, “The society appreciates that the delegates at the Paris climate summit have taken the science seriously and appear to have reached agreement on the critical elements of ...

In the context of growing global climate change awareness and intensifying environmental degradation, technological innovation in renewable energy has become a key realization method for sustainable development. This paper uses data samples from 30 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in China (excluding Tibet, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan due to data availability) from 2007–2022, constructs an SFA model to measure carbon emission efficiency, and innovatively investigates the U-shaped impact of technological innovation in renewable energy on carbon emission efficiency along with the moderating effects of informatization level and fiscal decentralization. The empirical findings reveal the following: (1) Technological innovation in renewable energy demonstrates a U-shaped impact on carbon emission efficiency, with a negative impact before inflection point 2.596605 and a positive impact after the inflection point. (2) The informatization level plays a positive regulating role in the impact of technological innovation in renewable energy toward carbon emission efficiency, while fiscal decentralization exerts a negative regulating effect. (3) The impact of technological innovation in renewable energy concerning carbon emission efficiency varies depending on regional differences, industrial structure levels, and technological innovation levels in renewable energy. The conclusions of this paper are helpful for promoting the development of technological innovation in renewable energy, improving carbon emission efficiency, and advancing sustainable socio-economic development.

Empirical considerations on the reciprocal relationship between energy efficiency and leading variables: New evidence from OECD countries

The Saudi Arabian economy has reported an unprecedented increase in growth rates over the last few decades. This growth has significantly increased the demand for non-renewable energy, leading to environmental risks. Renewable energy and technological innovation are the most effective instruments for reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, decreasing energy consumption, and enhancing energy efficiency. This study aims to explore the effects of renewable energy and technological innovation on CO2 emissions in Saudi Arabia over the period 1990–2023. To investigate this nexus, examine the long-run relationship, and determine causal connections, we employ the Autoregressive Distributed Lag model and the Vector Error Correction Model. The findings indicate that renewable energy and technological innovation help reduce CO2 emissions in both the short run and long run, improving environmental quality. Furthermore, the study utilizes several control variables related to information and communication, revealing that internet and mobile phone usage help lower CO2 emissions in both the short run and long run, thereby enhancing environmental quality. Nevertheless, the use of fixed telephones does not affect CO2 emissions. Based on the empirical results, this study provides valuable insights for policymakers to enhance environmental quality.

Impacts of environmental regulations on green economic growth in China: New guidelines regarding renewable energy and energy efficiency

Energy conservation is a fundamental principle in physics, stating that energy cannot be created or destroyed, but only transformed from one form to another. This principle plays a crucial role in modern technologies, particularly in the renewable energy sector and efforts to enhance energy efficiency. This research analyzes literature related to the application of energy conservation in various physical systems, including renewable energy technologies such as solar and wind power, as well as thermal and mechanical systems. The findings indicate that although significant progress has been made in implementing energy conservation, major challenges such as high initial infrastructure costs and energy storage efficiency remain obstacles. This study also highlights the importance of government policies in supporting innovation in renewable energy and energy efficiency for the future. It is hoped that this research will contribute to the development of more efficient and environmentally friendly energy solutions.

As a major greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide emissions (CO2E) are the main cause of global warming and environmental pollution. Thus, the reduction in carbon emissions has become a global concern. The widespread use of renewable energy and the improvement of energy efficiency seem to provide a feasible path for countries to achieve carbon emissions reduction, and have received the attention of governments and academics. However, very little literature has focused on the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of the effects of renewable energy use and energy efficiency on carbon emission intensity. This study applies the geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) model and complies with a balanced panel of data from member countries of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) between 2000 and 2019 to investigate the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of the effects of renewable energy and energy efficiency on CO2E. The results show that CO2E per capita (CO2EP) increases over time, but its distribution across RCEP member countries remains largely stable. Overall, the usage of renewable energy tends to decrease CO2EP, while energy efficiency tends to increase it. However, with the passage of time and changes in geographical location, renewable energy consumption and energy efficiency show significant temporal and spatial heterogeneity in their effects on CO2EP of RCEP member countries. Additionally, the effects of industrial structure, merchandise trade, urbanization rate, and energy poverty on CO2EP of RCEP member countries are also characterized by spatial and temporal heterogeneity.

This paper takes the rural areas of 27 provinces in China from 2009 to 2020 as the research object. Based on the Super-SBM model and the GML index, the efficiency of rural renewable energy is calculated and analyzed from both static and dynamic perspectives. Subsequently, the spatial differences among regions and the sources of these differences are analyzed using the Dagum Gini coefficient method. Finally, the panel Tobit model is used for the analysis of influencing factors. The research results show: (1) Within the study range, the efficiency of renewable energy shows significant spatio-temporal heterogeneity; the GML index presents a U-shaped characteristic, with slight declines in 2015 and 2016, and stable growth in other periods. (2) Regional differences are the main source of overall differences, but they show a gradually decreasing trend, indicating that the imbalance in the development of renewable energy in various regions in China has improved. (3) Economic level, education level, and power infrastructure have significant positive effects on the efficiency of renewable energy, while urbanization level is significantly negatively correlated with the efficiency of rural renewable energy. The impact is complex, and the effect of green finance is not significant.

The goal of this study was to examine the interlinkage of renewable energy, technology innovation, human capital, and governance on environment quality by using a panel quantile regression in Asian emerging economies over the period of 1990–2019. The results indicated that higher economic growth, population density, technological innovation in renewable energy, and exploitation of natural resources have significantly raised CO2 emissions in emerging Asia. Furthermore, larger capital, more use of renewable energy, green technology, and human capital development can improve environmental sustainability in Asia. As for governances, proxied by corruption rates, no evidence indicated that it has resulted in more damage, unlike earlier studies have suggested. The findings indicated that the three channels exposed in the Kuznets hypothesis can serve as a reference for proposals for environmental policies (scale of consumption, energy composition, and choice of technologies). There are opportunities to reduce CO2 emissions through investments in human development, investing in new technologies to increase efficiency in energy (generation and consumption), increasing working capital (GCF), and migrating to more environmentally friendly energy. The negative link between carbon dioxide emissions and economic growth, increases in population density, and exploitation of natural resources can compromise the achievement of sustainable environmental goals.

With rising global production and population, the globalized globe has also seen severe environmental damage. This is why renewable energy sources are important for the planet's future and human progress. In order to fight climate change and decrease emissions, promoting energy efficiency is one of the most valuable strategies. Trade patterns across borders, however, have significantly evolved. This analysis provides new evidence regarding the influence of technological progress, and more specifically, industrial innovation, on the OECD countries' international competitiveness. This article aims to analyse the effects of international commerce, FDI, and human capital on the development of renewable energy sources, energy efficiency measures, and cutting-edge technologies. In this analysis, we look at how different variables, including GDP per capita, trade, FDI, human capital, and urbanization, affect one another. To conduct the analysis, researchers used a pool of annual time series data from 2000 to 2019 for OECD economies. The long-term relationship between the variables is estimated using the AMG estimation, Cup-FM, and Cup-BC test. AMG estimation, Cup-FM estimation, and Cup-BC estimation were all used, providing valid results for the investigation. Research shows that energy efficiency, renewable energy, and technological innovation are negatively affected by FDI and urbanization but positively affected by GDP per capita, trade, and human capital. There is no statistically significant effect of human capital on the dependent variables. The estimated results also provide important policy consequences for the chosen and the other emerging economies in creating an adequate route ahead to sustainable development.

How do renewable energy, energy innovation and climate change shape the energy transition in USA? Unraveling the role of green finance development

The vast utilisation of energy sources in promoting economic growth has been identified as the major cause of environmental degradation (through carbon emission). Therefore, the efficient utilisation of energy ensuring the minimisation of any wastages is vital in reducing environmental degradation. The current research aims to investigate the importance of energy efficiency, forest resources, and renewable energy in reducing environmental degradation. The major novelty of the research is that it seeks to investigate the impact of forest resources and energy efficiency on carbon emissions. Literature shows that there is still a dearth on the association of forest resources and energy efficiency, with carbon emissions. We employ data of the European Union countries for the time frame ranging from 1990 to 2020. The CS-ARDL technique depicts that raising GDP by 1% raises carbon emissions by 5.62% in the short run and 2.93% in the long run, raising renewable energy by 1 unit reduces carbon emissions by 0.098 and 0.03 units in the short and long run, respectively, whilst raising energy efficiency by 1% reduces carbon emissions by 6.29% and 3.29% in the short and long run, respectively. The Fixed Effect and Random Effect tools support the outcomes of the CS-ARDL tool on the negative effect of renewable energy and energy efficiency, and the positive effect of GDP on carbon emissions, and also depict that raising non-renewable energy by a single unit raises carbon emissions by 0.07 and 0.08 units, respectively. Forest resources, in this present research, do not significantly impact the emissions of carbon amongst the European nations.

Rapid industrialization and modernization have drastically impaired ecological sustainability and increased ecological footprint (EFP). Despite the vital relevance of renewable energy (REC) and green technological innovation (GTI), in many facets of life, the part played by these factors and their spatial spillover effects in exploring ecological sustainability in EU countries has yet to be well studied. Thus, using a spatial panel econometric technique, this research investigates the direct and spillover effects of GTI and REC on ecological sustainability in 20 selected EU nations between 1995 and 2018. First, the empirical results affirm a positive spatial connection of EFP across nations, implying that employing spatial models can provide more trustworthy results than traditional econometric approaches. Second, both GTI and REC tend to significantly promote domestic ecological sustainability. Third, the environmental quality of EU countries benefit from the high GTI, REC, and human capital of their neighboring nations. Fourth, economic growth and financial globalization (FG) have a negative and significant effect on environmental quality. Other empirical analyses indicated that the indirect effect of FG on EFP is positive and significant. With a focus on the EU countries, this paper assists policymakers in developing a comprehensive strategy for enhancing ecological responsibility via renewable energy and green technology innovation.

PurposeThis paper aims to unravel the relationship between market-driven impacts of climate change and firms’ deployment of renewable energy (RE) innovation. The purpose is to understand how market-related forces, influenced by uncertainty, shape firms’ behaviour in response to climate change challenges.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the behavioural theory of the firm (BTOF), the paper develops a conceptual model to decode the relationship between each category of market-driven impacts and the resulting RE innovation within firms. The model takes into account the role of uncertainty and differentiates between multinational enterprises (MNEs) and domestic firms.FindingsThe analysis reveals five key sources of market-driven impacts: investor sentiment, media coverage, competitors’ adoption of ISO 14001, customer satisfaction and shareholder activism. These forces influence the adoption of RE innovation differently across firms, depending on the level of uncertainty and the discrepancy between environmental performance and aspiration level.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the literature in four ways. Firstly, it emphasises the importance of uncertainty associated with market-driven impacts, which stimulates different responses from firms. Secondly, it fills a research gap by focusing on the proactivity of firms in adopting RE innovation, rather than just operational strategies to curb emissions. Thirdly, the paper extends the BTOF by incorporating the concept of uncertainty in explaining firm behaviour. Finally, it provides insights into the green strategies of MNEs in the face of climate change, offering a comprehensive model that differentiates MNEs from domestic firms.