Analysis of Spatial Effects in the Relationship between CO 2 Emissions and Renewable Energy Consumption in the Context of Economic Growth

Mateusz Jankiewicz and Elżbieta Szulc
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Mateusz Jankiewicz: Faculty of Economic Sciences and Management, Nicolaus Copernicus University, 87-100 Toruń, Poland
Elżbieta Szulc: Faculty of Economic Sciences and Management, Nicolaus Copernicus University, 87-100 Toruń, Poland

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 18, 1-16

Abstract: The paper presents a spatial approach to the analysis of the relationship between air pollution, economic growth, and renewable energy consumption. The economic growth of every country is based on the energy consumption that leads to an increase in national productivity. Using renewable energy is very important for the environmental protection and security of the earth’s resources. Promoting environmentally friendly operations increases awareness of sustainable development, which is currently a major concern of state governments. In this study, we explored the influence of economic growth and the share of renewable energy out of total energy consumption on CO 2 emissions. The study was based on the classical environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) and enriched with the spatial dependencies. In particular, we determined the spatial spillovers in the form of the indirect effects of changes in renewable energy consumption of a specific country on the CO 2 emissions of neighboring countries. A neighborhood in this study was defined by ecological development similarity. The neighborhood matrix was constructed based on the values of the ecological footprint measure. We used the spatio-temporal Durbin model, with which the indirect effects were determined in relation to the spatially lagged renewable energy consumption. The results of our study also show the strength of the effects caused by imitating actions from the states with high levels of environmental protection. The study was conducted using data for 75 selected countries from the period of 2013–2019. Cumulative spatial and spatio-temporal effects allowed us to determine (1) the countries with the greatest impact on others and (2) the countries that follow the leading ones.

Keywords: economic growth; environmental Kuznets curve; renewable energy; spatio-temporal Durbin model; spatial spillovers (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: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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