Investigating Determinants of International Clean Energy Investments in Emerging Markets

Ekaterina Azarova and Hannah Jun
Additional contact information
Ekaterina Azarova: Graduate School of International Studies, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 03760, Korea
Hannah Jun: Graduate School of International Studies, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 03760, Korea

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 21, 1-15

Abstract: Although renewable energy investments in developing and emerging economies play a crucial role in accelerating the clean energy transition, investments remain limited. Building on previous research, this study takes a unique approach by analyzing determinants of clean energy investments from investors from one country, the United States, which represents the largest single source of investments. Based on panel data sourced from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF)’s Climatescope, we analyzed renewable energy investments by investors from the United States between 2008 and 2019. The analysis included four factors (i.e., economic, socio-environmental, political, and proactivity) and covered 61 emerging/developing countries. Our results suggest that the most significant factor that determines renewable energy investment by investors from the United States is commercial ties between the investing and recipient country. Our findings also demonstrate the importance of a strong legal system and clean energy promotion mechanisms, such as feed-in tariffs, in recipient countries. When breaking down investment flows, the effects of different economic factors may vary, depending on whether the renewable technology is solar or wind, which further highlights the importance of understanding determinants of renewable energy investments.

Keywords: clean energy; investment; Paris Agreement; renewable energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/21/11843/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/21/11843/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:21:p:11843-:d:665359

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().