Abstract
The current global spirit for sustainable development has led to increased attention to reducing the use of conventional energy sources and managing the issue of climate change. Renewable (or clean) energy consumption is a key element of any country’s environmental quality and sustainable economic growth. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the impacts on clean energy consumption of common factors in pursuing a sustainability strategy, including environmental degradation (measured as carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions), clean energy technology, gross domestic product (GDP) growth, institutional quality, and globalization for a panel of European Union (EU) 28 countries in the period from 1995 to 2017. We employ two estimation techniques, continuous updating-fully modifying (CUP-FM) and continuous updating-bias correcting (CUP-BC). In addition, the study incorporates Driscoll-Kraay regression for a panel model to investigate the validity and reliability of long-term elasticities’ results. The findings of long-run analyses indicate that CO2 emissions, clean energy technology, GDP growth, and globalization positively impact clean energy consumption and institutional quality negatively impacts it. Finally, the results of causality testing indicate a unidirectional causal relationship between clean energy technology and clean energy consumption and a bidirectional association between institutional quality and clean energy consumption. The study’s outcomes have policy implications, especially regarding designing strategic choices to promote investment in clean energy technology to increase the use of clean energy sources and to overcome the issues of institutional quality in supporting clean energy consumption in the EU-28 countries.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Details related to the discussion can be found at https://www.irena.org/europe.
The Information related to Systems of Technologies by Europa-Strategic Energy can be accessed at https://setis.ec.europa.eu
The economic freedom index data set can be accessed at https://www.fraserinstitute.org/economic-freedom/dataset
The details related to provisional agreement of European Climate Law can be accessed via link https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_1828.
References
Adedoyin FF, Bekun FV, Alola AA (2020) Growth impact of transition from non-renewable to renewable energy in the EU: the role of research and development expenditure. Renew Energy 159:1139–1145
Aguirre M, Ibikunle G (2014) Determinants of renewable energy growth: a global sample analysis. Energy Policy 69:374–384
Ajmi AN, Hammoudeh S, Nguyen DK, Sato JR (2015) On the relationships between CO2 emissions, energy consumption and income: the importance of time variation. Energy Econ 49:629–638
Allen ML, Allen MM, Cumming D, Johan S (2019) Comparative capitalisms and energy transitions: renewable energy in the European Union. British Journal of Management.
Alvarez-Herranz A, Balsalobre-Lorente D, Shahbaz M, Cantos JM (2017) Energy innovation and renewable energy consumption in the correction of air pollution levels. Energy Policy 105:386–397
Andreoni J, Levinson A (2001) The simple analytics of the environmental Kuznets curve. J Public Econ 80(2):269–286
Apergis N, Danuletiu DC (2014) Renewable energy and economic growth: Evidence from the sign of panel long-run causality. Int J Energy Econ Policy 4(4):578
Apergis N, Payne JE (2011) On the causal dynamics between renewable and non-renewable energy consumption and economic growth in developed and developing countries. Energy Systems 2(3-4):299–312
Apergis N, Payne JE (2012) Renewable and non-renewable energy consumption-growth nexus: Evidence from a panel error correction model. Energy Econ 34(3):733–738
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(11):2255–2260
Aragón-Correa JA, Sharma S (2003) A contingent resource-based view of proactive corporate environmental strategy. Acad Manag Rev 28(1):71–88
Azlina A, Law SH, Mustapha NHN (2014) Dynamic linkages among transport energy consumption, income and CO2 emission in Malaysia. Energy Policy 73:598–606
Bai J, Kao C (2006) On the estimation and inference of a panel cointegration model with cross-sectional dependence. Contributions to economic analysis 274:3–30
Bai J, Kao C, Ng S (2009) Panel cointegration with global stochastic trends. J Econ 149(1):82–99
Balcilar M, Ozdemir ZA, Ozdemir H, Shahbaz M (2018) The renewable energy consumption and growth in the G-7 countries: Evidence from historical decomposition method. Renew Energy 126:594–604
Bekun FV, Alola AA, Sarkodie SA (2019) Toward a sustainable environment: Nexus between CO2 emissions, resource rent, renewable and nonrenewable energy in 16-EU countries. Sci Total Environ 657:1023–1029
Bilgili F, Koçak E, Bulut Ü (2016) The dynamic impact of renewable energy consumption on CO2 emissions: a revisited Environmental Kuznets Curve approach. Renew Sust Energ Rev 54:838–845
BNEF (2020) Late Surge in Offshore Wind Financings Helps 2019 Renewables Investment to Overtake 2018. The Bloomberg New Energy Finance, London and New York
Brock WA, Taylor MS (2005) Economic growth and the environment: a review of theory and empirics. Handbook of economic growth 1:1749–1821 Elsevier
Callway R (2013) Governance for sustainable development: a foundation for the future: Earthscan
Çoban S, Topcu M (2013) The nexus between financial development and energy consumption in the EU: A dynamic panel data analysis. Energy Econ 39:81–88
Cole MA (2006) Does trade liberalization increase national energy use? Econ Lett 92(1):108–112
Danish Ulucak R. (2020) The pathway toward pollution mitigation: Does institutional quality make a difference?. Business Strategy and the Environment, n/a(n/a). doi: 10.1002/bse.2597
Dinda S (2004) Environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis: a survey. Ecol Econ 49(4):431–455
Dogan E, Ozturk I (2017) The influence of renewable and non-renewable energy consumption and real income on CO 2 emissions in the USA: evidence from structural break tests. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24(11):10846–10854
Dogan E, Seker F (2016) An investigation on the determinants of carbon emissions for OECD countries: empirical evidence from panel models robust to heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23(14):14646–14655
Dollar D, Kraay A (2004) Trade, growth, and poverty. Econ J 114(493):F22–F49
Dreher A (2006) Does globalization affect growth? Evidence from a new index of globalization. Appl Econ 38(10):1091–1110
Dumitrescu E-I, Hurlin C (2012) Testing for Granger non-causality in heterogeneous panels. Econ Model 29(4):1450–1460
EIA. (2019) U.S. Energy Information Administration
Elliot D (2008) Nuclear or Not? Does Nuclear Power Have a Place in a Sustainable Energy Future? ECONOMIC ISSUES-STOKE ON TRENT 13(1):96
Eren BM, Taspinar N, Gokmenoglu KK (2019) The impact of financial development and economic growth on renewable energy consumption: Empirical analysis of India. Sci Total Environ 663:189–197
EUC (2014) Council of the European Union. 2030 Framework for climate and energy: Brussels: Council of the European Union
Fei Q, Rasiah R, Shen LJ (2014) The clean energy-growth nexus with CO2 emissions and technological innovation in Norway and New Zealand. Energy & environment 25(8):1323–1344
Gallo A, Simões-Moreira J, Costa H, Santos M, dos Santos EM (2016) Energy storage in the energy transition context: A technology review. Renew Sust Energ Rev 65:800–822
Ganda F (2019) The impact of innovation and technology investments on carbon emissions in selected organisation for economic Co-operation and development countries. J Clean Prod 217:469–483
García-Álvarez MT, Cabeza-García L, Soares I (2018) Assessment of energy policies to promote photovoltaic generation in the European Union. Energy 151:864–874
Gozgor G, Mahalik MK, Demir E, Padhan H (2020) The impact of economic globalization on renewable energy in the OECD countries. Energy Policy 139:111365
Halicioglu F, Ketenci N (2018) Output, renewable and non-renewable energy production, and international trade: Evidence from EU-15 countries. Energy 159:995–1002
Han S, Won W, Kim J (2017) Scenario-based approach for design and comparatively analysis of conventional and renewable energy systems. Energy 129:86–100
Hart SL, Dowell G (2011) Invited editorial: A natural-resource-based view of the firm: Fifteen years after. J Manag 37(5):1464–1479
IEA (2017) World Energy Outlook, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development: OECD2017
Jalil A (2014) Energy–growth conundrum in energy exporting and importing countries: Evidence from heterogeneous panel methods robust to cross-sectional dependence. Energy Econ 44:314–324
Jiang Z, Lyu P, Ye L, Wenqian Zhou Y. (2020) Green Innovation Transformation, Economic Sustainability and Energy Consumption during China’s New Normal Stage. Journal of Cleaner Production, 123044
Kahia M, Aïssa MSB, 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
Kaygusuz K (2007) Energy for sustainable development: key issues and challenges. Energy Sources, Part B: Economics, Planning, and Policy 2(1):73–83
Khoshnevis Yazdi S, Shakouri B (2017a) The globalization, financial development, renewable energy, and economic growth. Energy Sources, Part B: Economics, Planning, and Policy 12(8):707–714
Khoshnevis Yazdi S, Shakouri B (2017b) Renewable energy, nonrenewable energy consumption, and economic growth. Energy Sources, Part B: Economics, Planning, and Policy 12(12):1038–1045
Kuriqi A, Pinheiro AN, Sordo-Ward A, Garrote L (2017) Trade-off between environmental flow policy and run-of-river hydropower generation in Mediterranean climate. Eur Water 60:123–130
Kusumadewi TV, Winyuchakrit P, Limmeechokchai B (2017) Long-term CO2 emission reduction from renewable energy in power sector: the case of Thailand in 2050. Energy Procedia 138:961–966
Kutan AM, Paramati SR, Ummalla M, Zakari A (2018) Financing renewable energy projects in major emerging market economies: Evidence in the perspective of sustainable economic development. Emerg Mark Financ Trade 54(8):1761–1777
Lin B, Zhu J (2019) The role of renewable energy technological innovation on climate change: empirical evidence from China. Sci Total Environ 659:1505–1512
Lorente DB, Álvarez-Herranz A (2016) Economic growth and energy regulation in the environmental Kuznets curve. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23(16):16478–16494
Mair J, Marti I, Ventresca MJ (2012) Building inclusive markets in rural Bangladesh: How intermediaries work institutional voids. Acad Manag J 55(4):819–850
Michailova S, McCarthy DJ, Puffer SM, Chadee D, Roxas B (2013) Institutional environment, innovation capacity and firm performance in Russia. Critical perspectives on international business
Omri A, Nguyen DK (2014) On the determinants of renewable energy consumption: International evidence. Energy 72:554–560
Ozokcu SOO (2017) Regression with Driscoll-Kraay standard errors. pdf. Renew Sust Energ Rev 72:639–647
Paramati SR, Apergis N, Ummalla M (2017a) Financing clean energy projects through domestic and foreign capital: The role of political cooperation among the EU, the G20 and OECD countries. Energy Econ 61:62–71
Paramati SR, Mo D, Gupta R (2017b) The effects of stock market growth and renewable energy use on CO2 emissions: evidence from G20 countries. Energy Econ 66:360–371
Pesaran MH (2004). General diagnostic tests for cross section dependence in panels.
Pesaran MH (2007) A simple panel unit root test in the presence of cross-section dependence. J Appl Econ 22(2):265–312
Phillips PC, Sul D (2003) Dynamic panel estimation and homogeneity testing under cross section dependence. Econ J 6(1):217–259
Saad W, Taleb A (2018) The causal relationship between renewable energy consumption and economic growth: evidence from Europe. Clean Techn Environ Policy 20(1):127–136
Sadorsky P (2009a) Renewable energy consumption and income in emerging economies. Energy Policy 37(10):4021–4028
Sadorsky P (2009b) Renewable energy consumption, CO2 emissions and oil prices in the G7 countries. Energy Econ 31(3):456–462
Saidi H, El Montasser G, Ajmi AN (2020) The role of institutions in the renewable energy-growth nexus in the MENA region: a panel cointegration approach. Environ Model Assess 25(2):259–276
Salim RA, Rafiq S (2012) Why do some emerging economies proactively accelerate the adoption of renewable energy? Energy Econ 34(4):1051–1057
Sarkodie SA, Strezov V (2019) Effect of foreign direct investments, economic development and energy consumption on greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries. Sci Total Environ 646:862–871
Sebri M, Ben-Salha O (2014) On the causal dynamics between economic growth, renewable energy consumption, CO2 emissions and trade openness: Fresh evidence from BRICS countries. Renew Sust Energ Rev 39:14–23
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
Shahbaz M, Lean HH, Shabbir MS (2012) Environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in Pakistan: cointegration and Granger causality. Renew Sust Energ Rev 16(5):2947–2953
Shahbaz M, Mallick H, Mahalik MK, Sadorsky P (2016) The role of globalization on the recent evolution of energy demand in India: Implications for sustainable development. Energy Econ 55:52–68
Shahbaz M, Mallick H, Mahalik MK, Hammoudeh S (2018a) Is globalization detrimental to financial development? Further evidence from a very large emerging economy with significant orientation towards policies. Appl Econ 50(6):574–595
Shahbaz M, Nasir MA, Roubaud D (2018b) Environmental degradation in France: the effects of FDI, financial development, and energy innovations. Energy Econ 74:843–857
Shahbaz M, Shahzad SJH, Mahalik MK, Sadorsky P (2018c) How strong is the causal relationship between globalization and energy consumption in developed economies? A country-specific time-series and panel analysis. Appl Econ 50(13):1479–1494
Shahnazi R, Shabani ZD (2020) Do renewable energy production spillovers matter in the EU? Renew Energy 150:786–796
Sharif A, Raza SA, Ozturk I, Afshan S (2019) The dynamic relationship of renewable and nonrenewable energy consumption with carbon emission: A global study with the application of heterogeneous panel estimations. Renew Energy 133:685–691
Soytas U, Sari R, Ewing BT (2007) Energy consumption, income, and carbon emissions in the United States. Ecol Econ 62(3-4):482–489
Stern DI (2007) The effect of NAFTA on energy and environmental efficiency in Mexico. Policy Stud J 35(2):291–322
Stiglitz JE (2002) Globalization and its Discontents (Vol. 500): New York Norton
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
Tang CF, Tan BW (2015) The impact of energy consumption, income and foreign direct investment on carbon dioxide emissions in Vietnam. Energy 79:447–454
Uzar U (2020) Political economy of renewable energy: Does institutional quality make a difference in renewable energy consumption? Renew Energy 155:591–603
WDI (2019) World Bank Indicators
Westerlund J, Edgerton DL (2007) A panel bootstrap cointegration test. Econ Lett 97(3):185–190
Wiser R, Millstein D, Mai T, Macknick J, Carpenter A, Cohen S, Cole W, Frew B, Heath G (2016) The environmental and public health benefits of achieving high penetrations of solar energy in the United States. Energy 113:472–486
Wordsworth A, Grubb M (2003) Quantifying the UK's incentives for low carbon investment. Clim Pol 3(1):77–88
Wu L, Broadstock DC (2015) Does economic, financial and institutional development matter for renewable energy consumption? Evidence from emerging economies. International Journal of Economic Policy in Emerging Economies 8(1):20–39
Zhu Y, Wittmann X, Peng MW (2012) Institution-based barriers to innovation in SMEs in China. Asia Pac J Manag 29(4):1131–1142
Acknowledgments
Authors would like to thankful of financial support provided by National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Social Science Funding Project of Jiangsu Province.
Funding
This research work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 7167031130] and the Social Science Funding Project of Jiangsu Province [grant number 18GLB024].
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
MU: conceptualization study design; data collection; methodology framework; paper writing; empirical analysis; review and editing. ZM: checking validation; supervision; project administration; evaluations of results; review. MWZ: conceptualization; visualization; data analysis; investigation; critical review. AW: conceptualization; methodology; investigation; visualization; reviewing. ML: methodology; data validation; supervision; project administration; evaluations of results.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests
Additional information
Responsible Editor: Roula Inglesi-Lotz
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Usman, M., Ma, Z., Zafar, M.W. et al. Analyzing the determinants of clean energy consumption in a sustainability strategy: evidence from EU-28 countries. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 54551–54564 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14473-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14473-6