The Effect of Renewable and Nuclear Energy Consumption on Decoupling Economic Growth from CO 2 Emissions in Spain

Mariola Pilatowska (), Andrzej Geise and Aneta Włodarczyk
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Andrzej Geise: Department of Econometrics and Statistics, Faculty of Economics, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Gagarina 13A, 87-100 Toruń, Poland
Aneta Włodarczyk: Faculty of Management, Czestochowa University of Technology, Al. Armii Krajowej 19B, 42-201 Częstochowa, Poland

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 9, 1-18

Abstract: This study examines the relationship between renewable and nuclear energy consumption, carbon dioxide emissions and economic growth by using the Granger causality and non-linear impulse response function in a business cycle in Spain. We estimate the threshold vector autoregression (TVAR) model on the basis of annual data from the period 1970–2018, which are disaggregated into quarterly data to obtain robust empirical results through avoiding a sample size problem. Our analysis reveals that economic growth and CO 2 emissions are positively correlated during expansions but not during recessions. Moreover, we find that rising nuclear energy consumption leads to decreased CO 2 emissions during expansions, while the impact of increasing renewable energy consumption on emissions is negative but insignificant. In addition, there is a positive feedback between nuclear energy consumption and economic growth, but unidirectional positive causality running from renewable energy consumption to economic growth in upturns. Our findings do indicate that both nuclear and renewable energy consumption contribute to a reduction in emissions; however, the rise in economic activity, leading to a greater increase in emissions, offsets this positive impact of green energy. Therefore, a decoupling of economic growth from CO 2 emissions is not observed. These results demand some crucial changes in legislation targeted at reducing emissions, as green energy alone is insufficient to reach this goal.

Keywords: renewable and nuclear energy; CO 2 emissions; decoupling; business cycle; threshold VAR (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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