The Role of Environmental Regulations, Renewable Energy, and Energy Efficiency in Finding the Path to Green Economic Growth

Henryk Dzwigol, Aleksy Kwilinski (), Oleksii Lyulyov and Tetyana Pimonenko
Additional contact information
Henryk Dzwigol: Department of Management, Faculty of Applied Sciences, WSB University, 41-300 Dabrowa Gornicza, Poland
Aleksy Kwilinski: Department of Management, Faculty of Applied Sciences, WSB University, 41-300 Dabrowa Gornicza, Poland
Tetyana Pimonenko: Department of Management, Faculty of Applied Sciences, WSB University, 41-300 Dabrowa Gornicza, Poland

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 7, 1-18

Abstract: European Union (EU) countries pay meticulous attention to environmental issues and achieve carbon-free development. In this direction, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and extending renewable energy are the primary goals. At the same time, the energy price and declining energy efficiency increase countries’ environmental expenditures and hinder their capabilities for economic growth. Against this backdrop, this research aims to examine the influence of environmental regulations, renewable energy, and energy efficiency on green economic growth. The originality of the study is twofold: first, it evaluates the green economic growth of a country, which simultaneously reveals the options for economic growth and the capability to eliminate its negative effect on the environment by applying the Global Malmquist–Luenberger productivity index; second, it develops an econometric model based on panel data for EU countries for 2000–2020 to investigate the nonlinear impact of environmental regulations, the effect of extending renewable energies, and the growth of energy efficiency on a country’s green economic growth. The study applies the following methodology: a system generalized method of moments (GMM) analysis. The empirical results confirm the U-shape, nonlinear impact of environmental regulations on a country’s green economic growth along with a gradual increase in energy efficiency. In addition, the findings indicate that renewable energy is crucial for furthering a country’s green economic growth. At the same time, environmental regulation has a significant role in extending renewable energy. The study results could be used as the basis for implementing green economic growth for EU countries and improving the policy of carbon-free development of these countries.

Keywords: sustainable development; green economic growth; inclusive growth; green energy (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: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/7/3090/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/7/3090/ (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:16:y:2023:i:7:p:3090-:d:1110031

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 ().