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En route to attaining a clean sustainable ecosystem: a nexus between solar energy technology, economic expansion and carbon emissions in China

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Abstract

This paper probes the nexus between solar energy technology, carbon intensity of energy structures, economic expansion, and carbon emissions (CO2) throughout 1990–2017 in China. The study utilized the vector auto-regressive (VAR) approach to co-integration testing and vector error-correction models to identify the most effective method for reducing CO2 emissions. Results from the Granger causality (GC) suggest a unidirectional causality between the variables. The test of impulse response function (IRF) constituted in the VAR technique was also applied in this study. The results indicate that energy structure intensity and economic expansion positively affect carbon emissions, while solar energy technology negatively affects carbon emissions. Simultaneous IRF analysis demonstrated that solar energy technology, energy structure carbon intensity, and economic expansion all have long-term effects on carbon emissions. The study concluded that when the economy expands, it influences CO2 emissions. Also, there exists a positive impact on CO2 emissions from the number of solar patents, but was seen to be decreasing gradually. The policy implications were also stated.

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Funding

Supported by Social Science Funding Project of Jiangsu Province (No. 18GLB024), Social Science Funding Project of Jilin Province (No. 2017B141), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2016M590251), China Postdoctoral Science Special Fund (No. 2018T110242). National Natural Science Foundation of China grant number (No. 7167031130), Jiangsu Postgraduate Scientific Research Innovation Project (B1810012).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, Jiangsu, China

    Mengjuan Zhang, Oswin Aganda Anaba, Zhiqiang Ma, Mingxing Li & Benjamin Azembila Asunka

  2. Department of Liberal Studies, Bolgatanga Technical University, Box 767, Bolgatanga, Ghana

    Oswin Aganda Anaba

  3. Department of Marketing, Bolgatanga Technical University, Box, 767, Bolgatanga, Ghana

    Benjamin Azembila Asunka

  4. Art College of Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, Jilin, China

    Weijun Hu

Authors
  1. Mengjuan Zhang
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  2. Oswin Aganda Anaba
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  3. Zhiqiang Ma
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  4. Mingxing Li
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  5. Benjamin Azembila Asunka
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  6. Weijun Hu
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Correspondence to Weijun Hu.

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Responsible editor: Muhammad Shahbaz

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Zhang, M., Anaba, O.A., Ma, Z. et al. En route to attaining a clean sustainable ecosystem: a nexus between solar energy technology, economic expansion and carbon emissions in China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 18602–18614 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-08386-z

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