Do educational levels influence the environmental quality? The role of renewable and non-renewable energy demand in selected BRICS countries with a new policy perspective

Mantu Mahalik (), Hrushikesh Mallick () and Hemachandra Padhan

Renewable Energy, 2021, vol. 164, issue C, 419-432

Abstract: Using panel data from 1990-2015 for selected BRICS (Brazil, India, China and South Africa) countries, the study empirically evaluates the role of primary and secondary education levels in curbing carbon emissions along with incorporating the changes in the pattern of energy consumption based on renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, real economic growth, urbanization and economic globalization as additional determinants in per capita CO2 emission function. Using random effect and system GMM techniques, the study reveals that primary education and non-renewable energy consumption along with total energy consumption, economic growth and globalization contribute to rising carbon emissions, whereas secondary education, urbanization and renewable energy consumption contribute to improving environmental quality via reducing carbon emissions. From a policy perspective, it suggests that policymakers and governments should put more efforts in promoting investment on higher education levels and expand green cities-driven urbanization, incentivize the society for a massive switch from adoption of non-renewable energy to renewable energy for economic activities in order to achieve sustainable environmental quality in emerging economies.

Keywords: Education levels; Renewable energy; Non-renewable; Carbon emissions; BRICS economies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I23 Q2 Q3 Q50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (57)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148120315159
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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:eee:renene:v:164:y:2021:i:c:p:419-432

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2020.09.090

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().