Impact Analysis of a National and Corporate Carbon Emission Reduction Target on Renewable Electricity Use: A Review

Chung-Hao Chang and Shih-Fang Lo
Additional contact information
Chung-Hao Chang: International Research Division, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER), Taipei 10672, Taiwan
Shih-Fang Lo: International Research Division, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER), Taipei 10672, Taiwan

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 5, 1-18

Abstract: The Paris Agreement requires countries to propose their National Determined Contributions (NDCs) and encourages companies to engage in climate action. This two-stage study explores the mutual influence of national and corporate carbon reduction targets and their effect on the adoption of renewable energy using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM). The subjects are companies nested in the G20, engaging in the Science-Based Target initiative (SBT i ) or the RE100 initiative. These empirical results show corporate targets are positively correlated to adoption of renewable energy, and development of renewable energy varies by country groups, however; national targets are insignificantly correlated. Our key findings: (1) companies which set SBTs are more willing to use renewable energy to achieve their targets but prefer power purchase agreements (PPAs) and renewable energy certificates (RECs) to investment in renewables. (2) The effect of a national-level target on corporate renewable energy use is non-significant, probably because most multinational corporations are used to compliance and their performances are likely to be better than the national deployment on climate change. We argue that an industrial energy transition to renewables is economically beneficial and needs substantial support in the form of policies or subsidies, instead of just setting targets or attracting publicity.

Keywords: carbon emission mitigation; SBT; NDC; renewable electricity; RE100 (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: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/5/1794/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/5/1794/ (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:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:5:p:1794-:d:761023

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

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