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The transition to renewable energy is inevitable as geopolitical risks drag on: a closer empirical look at MENAT oil importers

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Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of geopolitical risks on renewable energy generation in MENAT oil-importing countries, namely, Egypt, Tunisia, and Turkey over the period 1990–2020 using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model. The main findings emphasize that geopolitical risks play a crucial role in inducing renewable energy development in MENAT oil-importing countries in the short and long run. Financial development appears to positively and significantly affect renewable energy generation in the three countries. Furthermore, the speeds of adjustment towards the long-run equilibrium are 36.78%, 66.03%, and 17.81% annually in Egypt, Tunisia, and Turkey, respectively. In today’s volatile and turbulent world, dramatically rising geopolitical risks make the transition to renewable energy an inevitable reality. Consequently, it is incumbent upon policymakers and relevant authorities in MENAT oil-importing countries to preemptively redirect their efforts and strategies to conform to the demands of the inevitable transition to renewable energy sources and boost energy self-reliance.

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Data and material will be made available upon request.

Notes

  1. MENAT refers to the Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey region.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their sincere appreciation and thanks to the Editor Pr. Roula Inglesi-Lotz and anonymous referees for their helpful comments and suggestions that have greatly helped to improve the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Economics, University of Oran 2, Oran, Algeria

    Siham Matallah

  2. Economics, University of Ain Temouchent, Ain Temouchent, Algeria

    Amal Matallah

  3. Environmental Economics Section, Monaco Scientific Center (CSM), 8 Quai Antoine 1er, 98000, Quai Antoine, Monaco

    Nathalie Hilmi

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  1. Siham Matallah
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Contributions

Siham Matallah (the corresponding author): supervision, conceptualization, methodology, software, validation, formal analysis, data curation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, visualization. Amal Matallah: methodology, software, validation, formal analysis, data curation, writing—review and editing. Nathalie HILMI: review and editing.

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Correspondence to Siham Matallah.

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Appendices

Appendix 1

Fig. 2
figure 2

The sample of countries under study. Source: https://www.mapchart.net/

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Appendix 2

Table 5 Variable descriptions and data sources
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Matallah, S., Matallah, A. & Hilmi, N. The transition to renewable energy is inevitable as geopolitical risks drag on: a closer empirical look at MENAT oil importers. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 105293–105307 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-29823-9

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