Abstract
This paper focuses on the heterogeneity of renewable energy consumption and economic growth and emissions by using panel quantile regression models and based on the data from 33 countries during the period of 1990–2016. The approach in this paper is to consider the heterogeneity of the distribution, and results reveal a long-term equilibrium relationship among renewable energy consumption, economic growth and emissions. The role of renewable energy consumption in economic growth and emissions is heterogeneous, and the relationship between renewable energy consumption and economic growth is W-shaped. The relationship between renewable energy consumption and emissions has an inverted N-shape, and the relationship between non-renewable energy consumption and emission is a √-shaped curve. This paper supports the growth hypothesis and EKC. In addition, the energy consumption structure should be changed, and the use of renewable energy should be encouraged. This policy not only meets energy and economic growth demands but also improves environmental quality. In addition, countries with different levels of economic growth and emissions should adopt different policies instead of using the same policy.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adewuyi AO, Awodumi OB (2017) Renewable and non-renewable energy-growth-emissions linkages: review of emerging trends with policy implications. Renew Sust Energ Rev 69:275–291. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.11.178
Ahmed K, Mahalik MK, Shahbaz M (2016) Dynamics between economic growth, labor, capital and natural resource abundance in Iran: an application of the combined cointegration approach. Resour Policy 49:213–221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2016.06.005
Al-mulali U, Ozturk I (2016) The investigation of environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in the advanced economies: the role of energy prices. Renew Sust Energ Rev 54:1622–1631. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.10.131
Al-mulali U, Fereidouni HG, Lee JY, Sab CNBC (2013) Examining the bi-directional long run relationship between renewable energy consumption and GDP growth. Renew Sust Energ Rev 22:209–222. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2013.02.005
Alper A, Oguz O (2016) The role of renewable energy consumption in economic growth: evidence from asymmetric causality. Renew Sust Energ Rev 60:953–959. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.01.123
Amri F (2017) The relationship amongst energy consumption (renewable and non-renewable), and GDP in Algeria. Renew Sust Energ Rev 76:62–71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.03.029
Ang JB (2007) CO2 emissions, energy consumption, and output in France. Energy Policy 35:4772–4778. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2007.03.032
Apergis N, Payne JE (2010) Renewable energy consumption and economic growth: evidence from a panel of OECD countries. Energy Policy 38:656–660. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2009.09.002
Apergis N, Payne JE (2011a) On the causal dynamics between renewable and non-renewable energy consumption and economic growth in developed and developing countries. Energy Syst 2:299–312. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12667-011-0037-6
Apergis N, Payne JE (2011b) The renewable energy consumption–growth nexus in Central America. Appl Energy 88:343–347. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2010.07.013
Apergis N, Payne JE (2012) Renewable and non-renewable energy consumption-growth nexus: evidence from a panel error correction model. Energy Econ 34:733–738. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2011.04.007
Apergis N, Payne JE (2014) Renewable energy, output, CO2 emissions, and fossil fuel prices in Central America: evidence from a nonlinear panel smooth transition vector error correction model. Energy Econ 42:226–232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2014.01.003
Apergis N, Payne JE (2015) Renewable energy, output, carbon dioxide emissions, and oil prices: evidence from South America. Energy Sources Part B 10:281–287. https://doi.org/10.1080/15567249.2013.853713
Apergis N, Payne JE, Menyah K, Wolde-Rufael Y (2010) On the causal dynamics between emissions, nuclear energy, renewable energy, and economic growth. Ecol Econ 69:2255–2260. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2010.06.014
Arbex M, Perobelli FS (2010) Solow meets Leontief: economic growth and energy consumption. Energy Econ 32:43–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2009.05.004
Aslan A (2016) The causal relationship between biomass energy use and economic growth in the United States. Renew Sust Energ Rev 57:362–366. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.12.109
Ayres R, Voudouris V (2014) The economic growth enigma: capital, labour and useful energy? Energy Policy 64:16–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2013.06.001
Balcilar M, Ozdemir ZA, Arslanturk Y (2010) Economic growth and energy consumption causal nexus viewed through a bootstrap rolling window. Energy Econ 32:1398–1410. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2010.05.015
Belke A, Dobnik F, Dreger C (2011) Energy consumption and economic growth: new insights into the cointegration relationship. Energy Econ 33:782–789. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2011.02.005
Ben Aïssa MS, Ben Jebli M, Ben Youssef S (2014) Output, renewable energy consumption and trade in Africa. Energy Policy 66:11–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2013.11.023
Ben Jebli M, Ben Youssef S, Ozturk I (2016) Testing environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis: the role of renewable and non-renewable energy consumption and trade in OECD countries. Ecol Indic 60:824–831. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2015.08.031
Bildirici ME (2013) Economic growth and biomass energy. Biomass Bioenergy 50:19–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biombioe.2012.09.055
Bilgili F (2012) The impact of biomass consumption on CO2 emissions: cointegration analyses with regime shifts. Renew Sust Energ Rev 16:5349–5354. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2012.04.021
Bilgili F, Koçak E, Bulut U (2016) The dynamic impact of renewable energy consumption on CO2 emissions: a revisited environmental Kuznets Curve Approach. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 54:838–845. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.10.080
Bloch H, Rafiq S, Salim R (2015) Economic growth with coal, oil and renewable energy consumption in China: prospects for fuel substitution. Econ Model 44:104–115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econmod.2014.09.017
Bowden N, Payne J (2010) Sectoral analysis of the causal relationship between renewable and non-renewable energy consumption and real output in the US. Energy Sources Part B 5:400–408. https://doi.org/10.1080/15567240802534250
Breitung J (2001) The local power of some unit root tests for panel data. In: Nonstationary Panels, Panel Cointegration, and Dynamic Panels, vol 15. Adv Econ 15. Emerald Group Publishing Limited:161–177. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0731-9053(00)15006-6
Chang T, Gupta R, Inglesi-Lotz R, Simo-Kengne B, Smithers D, Trembling A (2015) Renewable energy and growth: evidence from heterogeneous panel of G7 countries using granger causality. Renew Sust Energ Rev 52:1405–1412. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.08.022
Chiu C-L, Chang T-H (2009) What proportion of renewable energy supplies is needed to initially mitigate CO2 emissions in OECD member countries? Renew Sust Energ Rev 13:1669–1674. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2008.09.026
Choi I (2001) Unit root tests for panel data. J Int Money Financ 20:249–272. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0261-5606(00)00048-6
Damette O, Delacote P (2012) On the economic factors of deforestation: what can we learn from quantile analysis? Econ Model 29:2427–2434. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econmod.2012.06.015
Destek MA, Aslan A (2017) Renewable and non-renewable energy consumption and economic growth in emerging economies: evidence from bootstrap panel causality. Renew Energy 111:757–763. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2017.05.008
do Valle Costa C, La Rovere E, Assmann D (2008) Technological innovation policies to promote renewable energies: lessons from the European experience for the Brazilian case. Renew Sust Energ Rev 12:65–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2006.05.006
Dogan E (2015) The relationship between economic growth and electricity consumption from renewable and non-renewable sources: a study of Turkey. Renew Sust Energ Rev 52:534–546. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.07.130
EIA (2018) International energy outlook 2018. U.S. Department of Energy, Washington, DC https://www.eia.gov/. Accessed 7 Dec 2018
Ewing BT, Sari R, Soytas U (2007) Disaggregate energy consumption and industrial output in the United States. Energy Policy 35:1274–1281. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2006.03.012
Fang Y (2011) Economic welfare impacts from renewable energy consumption: the China experience. Renew Sust Energ Rev 15:5120–5128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2011.07.044
Galvao AF (2011) Quantile regression for dynamic panel data with fixed effects. J Econ 164:142–157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconom.2011.02.016
Gurgul H, Lach Ł (2012) The electricity consumption versus economic growth of the polish economy. Energy Econ 34:500–510. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2011.10.017
Hajko V (2017) The failure of energy-economy Nexus: a meta-analysis of 104 studies. Energy 125:771–787. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2017.02.095
Halkos GE, Tzeremes NG (2014) The effect of electricity consumption from renewable sources on countries′ economic growth levels: evidence from advanced, emerging and developing economies. Renew Sust Energ Rev 39:166–173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2014.07.082
I Bairam E (1990) Capital-labour substitution and slowdown in soviet economic growth: a re-examination. Bull Econ Res 42:63–72. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8586.1990.tb00292.x
IEA (2018) World energy outlook 2018. https://www.iea.org/
Im KS, Pesaran MH, Shin Y (2003) Testing for unit roots in heterogeneous panels. J Econ 115:53–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-4076(03)00092-7
Inglesi-Lotz R (2016) The impact of renewable energy consumption to economic growth: a panel data application. Energy Econ 53:58–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2015.01.003
Jaforullah M, King A (2015) Does the use of renewable energy sources mitigate CO2 emissions? A reassessment of the US evidence. Energy Econ 49:711–717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2015.04.006
Kahia M, Ben Aïssa MS, Charfeddine L (2016) Impact of renewable and non-renewable energy consumption on economic growth: new evidence from the MENA net oil exporting countries (NOECs). Energy 116:102–115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2016.07.126
Kahia M, Aïssa MSB, Lanouar C (2017) Renewable and non-renewable energy use - economic growth nexus: the case of MENA net oil importing countries. Renew Sust Energ Rev 71:127–140. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.01.010
Kao C (1999) Spurious regression and residual-based tests for cointegration in panel data. J Econ 90:1–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-4076(98)00023-2
Kasman A, Duman YS (2015) CO2 emissions, economic growth, energy consumption, trade and urbanization in new EU member and candidate countries: a panel data analysis. Econ Model 44:97–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econmod.2014.10.022
Koenker R (2004) Quantile regression for longitudinal data. J Multivar Anal 91:74–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmva.2004.05.006
Kula F (2014) The long-run relationship between renewable electricity consumption and GDP: evidence from panel data. Energy Sources Part B 9:156–160. https://doi.org/10.1080/15567249.2010.481655
Lamarche C (2010) Robust penalized quantile regression estimation for panel data. J Econ 157:396–408. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconom.2010.03.042
Lau L-S, Choong C-K, Eng Y-K (2014) Investigation of the environmental Kuznets curve for carbon emissions in Malaysia: do foreign direct investment and trade matter? Energy Policy 68:490–497. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2014.01.002
Lee C-C, Chang C-P (2008) Energy consumption and economic growth in Asian economies: a more comprehensive analysis using panel data. Resour Energy Econ 30:50–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.reseneeco.2007.03.003
Levin A, Lin C-F, James Chu C-S (2002) Unit root tests in panel data: asymptotic and finite-sample properties. J Econ 108:1–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-4076(01)00098-7
Lin B, Moubarak M (2014) Renewable energy consumption – economic growth nexus for China. Renew Sust Energ Rev 40:111–117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2014.07.128
Lin B, Wesseh PK Jr (2014) Energy consumption and economic growth in South Africa reexamined: a nonparametric testing apporach. Renew Sust Energ Rev 40:840–850. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2014.08.005
López-Menéndez AJ, Pérez R, Moreno B (2014) Environmental costs and renewable energy: re-visiting the environmental Kuznets curve. J Environ Manag 145:368–373. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2014.07.017
Menegaki AN (2011) Growth and renewable energy in Europe: a random effect model with evidence for neutrality hypothesis. Energy Econ 33:257–263. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2010.10.004
Menyah K, Wolde-Rufael Y (2010) CO2 emissions, nuclear energy, renewable energy and economic growth in the US. Energy Policy 38:2911–2915. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2010.01.024
Mutascu M (2016) A bootstrap panel granger causality analysis of energy consumption and economic growth in the G7 countries. Renew Sust Energ Rev 63:166–171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.05.055
Ndoricimpa A (2017) Analysis of asymmetries in the nexus among energy use, pollution emissions and real output in South Africa. Energy 125:543–551. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2017.02.065
Ocal O, Aslan A (2013) Renewable energy consumption–economic growth nexus in Turkey. Renew Sust Energ Rev 28:494–499. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2013.08.036
Ohler A, Fetters I (2014) The causal relationship between renewable electricity generation and GDP growth: a study of energy sources. Energy Econ 43:125–139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2014.02.009
Özbuğday FC, Erbas BC (2015) How effective are energy efficiency and renewable energy in curbing CO2 emissions in the long run? A heterogeneous panel data analysis. Energy 82:734–745. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2015.01.084
Ozturk I (2010) A literature survey on energy–growth nexus. Energy Policy 38:340–349. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2009.09.024
Pao H-T, Fu H-C (2013) Renewable energy, non-renewable energy and economic growth in Brazil. Renew Sust Energ Rev 25:381–392. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2013.05.004
Payne J (2010) Survey of the international evidence on the causal relationship between energy consumption and growth. J Econ Stud 37:53–95. https://doi.org/10.1108/01443581011012261
Payne J (2012) The causal dynamics between US renewable energy consumption, output, emissions, and oil prices. Energy Sources Part B 7:323–330. https://doi.org/10.1080/15567249.2011.595248
Pedroni P (1999) Critical values for cointegration tests in heterogeneous panels with multiple regressors. Oxf Bull Econ Stat 61:653–670. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0084.61.s1.14
Pedroni P (2004) Panel cointegration: asymptotic and finite sample properties of pooled time series tests with an application to the PPP hypothesis. Economet Theory 20:597–625. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266466604203073
Pokrovski VN (2003) Energy in the theory of production. Energy 28:769–788. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0360-5442(03)00031-8
Saboori B, Soleymani A (2011) CO2 emissions, economic growth and energy consumption in Iran: a co-integration approach. Int J Environ Sci 2:44–53
Sadorsky P (2009) Renewable energy consumption and income in emerging economies. Energy Policy 37:4021–4028. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2009.05.003
Salim RA, Rafiq S (2012) Why do some emerging economies proactively accelerate the adoption of renewable energy? Energy Econ 34:1051–1057. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2011.08.015
Salim RA, Hassan K, Shafiei S (2014) Renewable and non-renewable energy consumption and economic activities: further evidence from OECD countries. Energy Econ 44:350–360. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2014.05.001
Sebri M (2015) Use renewables to be cleaner: meta-analysis of the renewable energy consumption–economic growth nexus. Renew Sust Energ Rev 42:657–665. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2014.10.042
Shafiei S, Salim RA (2014) Non-renewable and renewable energy consumption and CO2 emissions in OECD countries: a comparative analysis. Energy Policy 66:547–556. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2013.10.064
Shahbaz M, Loganathan N, Zeshan M, Zaman K (2015) Does renewable energy consumption add in economic growth? An application of auto-regressive distributed lag model in Pakistan. Renew Sust Energ Rev 44:576–585. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.01.017
Shahbaz M, Hoang THV, Mahalik MK, Roubaud D (2017) Energy consumption, financial development and economic growth in India: new evidence from a nonlinear and asymmetric analysis. Energy Econ 63:199–212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2017.01.023
Silva S, Soares I, Afonso O (2013) Economic and environmental effects under resource scarcity and substitution between renewable and non-renewable resources. Energy Policy 54:113–124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2012.10.069
Sohag K, Begum RA, Abdullah SMS, Jaafar M (2015) Dynamics of energy use, technological innovation, Economic growth and trade openness in Malaysia. Energy 90:1497–1507. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2015.06.101
Sulaiman J, Azman A, Saboori B (2013) The potentialof renewable energy: using the environmental kuznets curve model. Am J Environ Sci 9:103–112. https://doi.org/10.3844/ajessp.2013.103.112
Tang CF, Tan EC (2013) Exploring the nexus of electricity consumption, economic growth, energy prices and technology innovation in Malaysia. Appl Energy 104:297–305. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2012.10.061
Tugcu CT, Tiwari AK (2016) Does renewable and/or non-renewable energy consumption matter for total factor productivity (TFP) growth? Evidence from the BRICS. Renew Sust Energ Rev 65:610–616. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.07.016
Tugcu CT, Topcu M (2018) Total, renewable and non-renewable energy consumption and economic growth: revisiting the issue with an asymmetric point of view. Energy 152:64–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2018.03.128
Tugcu CT, Ozturk I, Aslan A (2012) Renewable and non-renewable energy consumption and economic growth relationship revisited: evidence from G7 countries. Energy Econ 34:1942–1950. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2012.08.021
Yu ESH, Hwang B-K (1984) The relationship between energy and GNP: further results. Energy Econ 6:186–190. https://doi.org/10.1016/0140-9883(84)90015-X
Zeb R, Salar L, Awan U, Zaman K, Shahbaz M (2014) Causal links between renewable energy, environmental degradation and economic growth in selected SAARC countries: progress towards green economy. Renew Energy 71:123–132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2014.05.012
Zhou N, Levine MD, Price L (2010) Overview of current energy-efficiency policies in China. Energy Policy 38:6439–6452. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2009.08.015
Zrelli MH (2017) Renewable energy, non-renewable energy, carbon dioxide emissions and economic growth in selected Mediterranean countries. Environ Econ Policy Stud 19:691–709. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10018-016-0170-5
Acknowledgements
We would like to appreciate the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.
Funding
This study was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan (2018JJ2264). The views of this paper are only from the authors and do not necessarily represent official views of the sponsors.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
ESM 1
(DTA 39 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zhou, A., Li, J. Heterogeneous role of renewable energy consumption in economic growth and emissions reduction: evidence from a panel quantile regression. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26, 22575–22595 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-05447-w
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-05447-w