• Energy Research

In this study, the causal nexus between carbon dioxide emission, electricity consumption, industrialization, and economic growth was examined in Benin for the periods between 1980 and 2012 using the autoregressive distributed lag approach. Evidence from the study shows that a 1% increase in electricity consumption will increase carbon dioxide emissions by 0.56% in the short run, a 1% increase in Benin’s total electricity consumption will increase carbon dioxide emissions by 0.95% in the long run, while a 1% increase in industrialization will increase carbon dioxide emissions by 0.60% in the long run. In the quest to mitigate climate change, the study proposes an investment in clean and renewable energy sources to substitute the fossil fuels currently used for electricity production in Benin.

The world is fast becoming a global village due to the increasing daily requirement of energy by all population across the world while the earth in its form cannot change. The need for energy and its related services to satisfy human social and economic development, welfare and health is increasing. Returning to renewables to help mitigate climate change is an excellent approach which needs to be sustainable in order to meet energy demand of future generations. The study reviewed the opportunities associated with renewable energy sources which includes: Energy Security, Energy Access, Social and Economic development, Climate Change Mitigation, and reduction of environmental and health impacts. Despite these opportunities, there are challenges that hinder the sustainability of renewable energy sources towards climate change mitigation. These challenges include Market failures, lack of information, access to raw materials for future renewable resource deployment, and our daily carbon footprint. The study suggested some measures and policy recommendations which when considered would help achieve the goal of renewable energy thus to reduce emissions, mitigate climate change and provide a clean environment as well as clean energy for all and future generations.

Among the numerous anthropogenic pollutants, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is one of the leading contaminants mainly released by burning fossil fuels in industrial and transport sectors. This study evaluates the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on the growing trend of NO2 emissions in South Asia. Satellite imagery data of Sentinel-5 Precursor with Tropomi instrument was employed in this study. The analysis was performed using time series data from February–May 2019 and February–May 2020. The time frame from February–May 2020 was further divided into two sub-time-frames, i.e., from 1 February–20 March (pre-lockdown) and from 21 March–May 2020 (lockdown). Results show the concentration of NO2 pollutants over the region declined by 6.41% from February–May 2019 to February–May 2020. Interestingly, an increasing trend of NO2 concentration by 6.58% occurred during the pre-lockdown phase in 2020 (1 February–20 March) compared to 2019 (February–May). However, the concentration of NO2 pollutants reduced considerably by 21.10% during the lockdown phase (21 March–10 May) compared to the pre-lockdown phase in 2020. Furthermore, the country-specific detailed analysis demonstrates the significant impact of COVID-19-attributed lockdown on NO2 concentration in South Asia.

This study examines the relationship between foreign direct investment inflows and economic growth in a carbon function, by incorporating the role of urbanization, and coal consumption as additional variables to avoid omitted variable bias. The different order of integration from the unit root test suggested the adoption of a dynamic autoregressive distributed lag bounds testing procedure. The results confirmed the existence of a long-run equilibrium relationship between the outlined series within the period under investigation, with a high speed of convergence. The ARDL equilibrium relationship shows that coal consumption is the largest emitter of carbon dioxide emissions in both short- (0.77%) and long-run (0.86%). Economic growth was found to escalate CO2 emission by approximately 0.27% (in the short-run) and 0.19% (in the long-run). The Granger causality test indicates a non-causal effect between FDI inflow and economic expansion in South Africa, which implies that FDI is not a driver of economic advancement. The empirical study shows a bidirectional causal effect between urbanization and foreign direct investment. This suggests that urban development stimulates foreign direct investment in South Africa. The findings reveal a one-way link from GDP to coal consumption, suggesting economic prosperity promotes coal consumption. The study underscores that economic development and the attraction of more economic investments is in part dependent on the conservative policy, development of urban centers through infrastructural improvement, and establishing industrial zones.

Climate change adaptation and mitigation remain critical to achieving sustainable development while reducing climate vulnerability, particularly among climate-exposed and sensitive regions. Yet, achieving a balance between climate-resilience pathways, high economic productivity, high human development, and energy efficiency appears complex, leading to potential trade-offs. Here, we examine the overarching effect of the diversified energy portfolio, socio-economic drivers, and governance adaptation readiness on Climate change vulnerability across 212 economies. Contrary to the poor conventional panel techniques reported in the existing literature, we employ novel machine learning and dynamic panel estimation techniques that control for chaos, nonlinearity, mutual coupling, and heterogeneity in dynamic systems. The convergent cross-mapping causality technique reveals mutual coupling effects between energy portfolio, governance readiness, socio-economic drivers, and climate change vulnerability. The rapidly increasing population and increasing demand for resources under the business-as-usual society and economic structure that normalizes unsustainable development pathways due to weak governance structures create ineffective climate-resilient policies that lead to unabated emissions with consequences on climate change. The effect of social and governance readiness leads the transformation process to attain sustainable development. Thus, high social and governance readiness spurs climate resilience through climate change adaptation and mitigation to achieve sustainable development. Alternative (renewables) and nuclear energy have displacement effects on fossil fuels, yet, the magnitude of displacement is not large enough to replace future fossil fuel consumption. Conversely, a low-carbon future is still attainable by replacing the fossil energy portfolio with more natural gas and carbon-abatement technologies. Our study demonstrates that energy innovations are useful climate-resilience pathways that lessen climate ...

Le rôle de la consommation d'énergie renouvelable et fossile sur la durabilité environnementale reste peu concluant en raison de la diversité des structures économiques et technologiques. Cette étude fournit de nouvelles perspectives en évaluant le lien entre l'utilisation de deux catégories d'énergie — renouvelable et conventionnelle, la qualité de l'environnement et la croissance économique incarnant le capital, l'ouverture commerciale et les dépenses publiques. Un panel de données de 45 économies émergentes et en développement (EMDE) de 1990 à 2014 a été utilisé dans l'étude. Nous avons appliqué une approche de données de panel hétérogènes et des techniques économétriques de deuxième génération qui permettent une dépendance transversale et une hétérogénéité des pentes. L'évaluation des effets à long terme menée par AMG, ainsi que les estimateurs CCEMG et MG ont révélé qu'en plus d'autres facteurs tels que les dépenses publiques, les capitaux et l'ouverture commerciale, l'utilisation des énergies non renouvelables et renouvelables contribue de manière significative à la croissance économique des EMDE sélectionnés. L'étude reconnaît l'effet de compromis entre la qualité de l'environnement et la croissance économique. En utilisant le test de Dumitrescu et Hurlin, nous avons trouvé des preuves solides pour soutenir les hypothèses de rétroaction parmi les énergies renouvelables, la consommation de carburants conventionnels, la croissance économique et les émissions de CO2. D'un point de vue politique, les résultats empiriques recommandent la mise en œuvre de politiques efficaces qui favorisent l'énergie verte et l'ajustement structurel économique afin de diminuer le niveau des émissions atmosphériques de CO2. El papel del consumo de energía renovable y de combustibles fósiles en la sostenibilidad ambiental sigue sin ser concluyente debido a la variada estructura económica y tecnológica. Este estudio proporciona una nueva perspectiva al evaluar el nexo entre la utilización de dos categorías de energía: renovable y convencional, calidad ambiental y crecimiento económico que incorporan capital, apertura comercial y gasto público. En el estudio se empleó un panel de datos de 45 economías de mercados emergentes y en desarrollo (EMDE) de 1990 a 2014. Aplicamos un enfoque de datos de panel heterogéneo y técnicas econométricas de segunda generación que permiten la dependencia transversal y la heterogeneidad de pendientes. La evaluación de los efectos a largo plazo realizada por AMG, junto con los estimadores de CCEMG y MG, reveló que, además de otros factores como el gasto gubernamental, el capital y la apertura comercial, la utilización de energías no renovables y renovables contribuye significativamente al crecimiento económico de los EMDE seleccionados. El estudio reconoce el efecto de compensación entre la calidad ambiental y el crecimiento económico. Usando la prueba de Dumitrescu y Hurlin, encontramos evidencia sólida para respaldar las hipótesis de retroalimentación entre la energía renovable, el consumo de combustibles convencionales, el crecimiento económico y las emisiones de CO2. Desde una perspectiva política, los hallazgos empíricos recomiendan la implementación de políticas efectivas que promuevan la energía verde y el ajuste estructural económico para disminuir el nivel de emisiones de CO2 atmosférico. The role of renewable and fossil fuel energy consumption on environmental sustainability remains inconclusive due to varied economic and technological structure. This study provides new insight by assessing the nexus between the utilization of two energy categories — renewable and conventional, environmental quality and economic growth embodying capital, trade openness and government expenditure. A panel data of 45 Emerging Market and Developing Economies (EMDEs) from 1990 to 2014 was employed in the study. We applied heterogeneous panel data approach and second-generational econometric techniques that permit cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity. The evaluation of long-term effects conducted by AMG, along with CCEMG and MG estimators revealed that besides other factors such as government expenditure, capital, and trade openness, non-renewable and renewable energy utilization significantly contributes to the economic growth of the selected EMDEs. The study acknowledges the trade-off effect between environmental quality and economic growth. Using Dumitrescu and Hurlin test, we found strong evidence to support the feedback hypotheses among renewable energy, consumption of conventional fuels, economic growth and CO2 emissions. From a policy perspective, the empirical findings recommend the implementation of effective policies that promote green power and economic structural adjustment in order to diminish the level of atmospheric CO2 emissions. لا يزال دور استهلاك الطاقة المتجددة والوقود الأحفوري في الاستدامة البيئية غير حاسم بسبب الهيكل الاقتصادي والتكنولوجي المتنوع. تقدم هذه الدراسة رؤية جديدة من خلال تقييم العلاقة بين استخدام فئتين من الطاقة — المتجددة والتقليدية، والجودة البيئية والنمو الاقتصادي الذي يجسد رأس المال والانفتاح التجاري والإنفاق الحكومي. تم استخدام بيانات لجنة من 45 من اقتصادات الأسواق الناشئة والاقتصادات النامية (EMDEs) من 1990 إلى 2014 في الدراسة. طبقنا نهج بيانات اللوحة غير المتجانسة وتقنيات الاقتصاد القياسي من الجيل الثاني التي تسمح بالاعتماد على المقطع العرضي وعدم التجانس المنحدر. كشف تقييم الآثار طويلة الأجل الذي أجرته AMG، جنبًا إلى جنب مع CCEMG ومقدري MG أنه إلى جانب عوامل أخرى مثل الإنفاق الحكومي ورأس المال والانفتاح التجاري، يساهم استخدام الطاقة غير المتجددة والمتجددة بشكل كبير في النمو الاقتصادي لاقتصادات الأسواق الناشئة والبلدان النامية المختارة. تقر الدراسة بتأثير المفاضلة بين الجودة البيئية والنمو الاقتصادي. باستخدام اختبار Dumitrescu و Hurlin، وجدنا أدلة قوية لدعم فرضيات التغذية الراجعة بين الطاقة المتجددة واستهلاك الوقود التقليدي والنمو الاقتصادي وانبعاثات ثاني أكسيد الكربون. من منظور السياسات، توصي النتائج التجريبية بتنفيذ سياسات فعالة تعزز الطاقة الخضراء والتكيف الهيكلي الاقتصادي من أجل تقليل مستوى انبعاثات ثاني أكسيد الكربون في الغلاف الجوي.