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A causal link between renewable energy, energy efficiency, property rights, and CO2 emissions in developed countries: A road map for environmental sustainability

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Abstract

CO2 emissions are the leading causes of deterioration in air quality and global warming. Likewise, it has been shown that clean energy reduces air pollution, so this would be a way out of environmental pollution. Some previous studies have focused on knowing the determinants of environmental pollution; however, they have omitted the State’s role. Thus, this study explores the long-term nexus between CO2 emissions and renewable energy, energy efficiency, fossil fuels, GDP, property rights from 1995 to 2019 in nine developed countries. The results reveal a long-term equilibrium relationship in developed European countries, but not in developed non-European countries. The main results show that renewable energy and energy efficiency are negatively correlated with CO2 emissions. In developed European countries, a 1% increase in renewable energy consumption represents a 0.03% decrease in CO2 emissions. Finally, some policy measures are suggested to achieve environmental sustainability.

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The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available on reasonable request.

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Funding

This work is partially supported by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2019 M660700); the Beijing Key Laboratory of Megaregions Sustainable Development Modeling, Capital University of Economics and Business (No. MCR2019QN09).

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  1. School of Economics, Universidad Nacional de Loja, Loja, Ecuador

    Pablo Ponce

  2. School of Management and Engineering, Xuzhou University of Technology, Xuzhou, China

    Syed Abdul Rehman Khan

  3. School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Syed Abdul Rehman Khan

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  1. Pablo Ponce
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  2. Syed Abdul Rehman Khan
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SARK and PP contributed equally to this work.

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Correspondence to Syed Abdul Rehman Khan.

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Ponce, P., Khan, S.A.R. A causal link between renewable energy, energy efficiency, property rights, and CO2 emissions in developed countries: A road map for environmental sustainability. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 37804–37817 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-12465-0

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