Carbon Dioxide, Nitrous Oxide, and Methane: What Types of Greenhouse Gases Are Most Affected by Green Investments and Renewable Energy Development?

Aleksy Kwilinski, Olena Dobrovolska, Tomasz Wołowiec, Wiktor Cwynar, Iryna Didenko, Artem Artyukhov and Oleksandr Dluhopolskyi ()
Additional contact information
Aleksy Kwilinski: Department of Management, Faculty of Applied Sciences, WSB University, 41-300 Dabrowa Gornicza, Poland
Olena Dobrovolska: Faculty of Economics, Dresden University of Applied Sciences (HTWD), 01-069 Dresden, Germany
Tomasz Wołowiec: Institute of Public Administration and Business, Lubelska Akademia WSEI, 20-209 Lublin, Poland
Wiktor Cwynar: Institute of Public Administration and Business, Lubelska Akademia WSEI, 20-209 Lublin, Poland
Iryna Didenko: Academic and Research Institute of Business, Economics and Management, Sumy State University, 40-007 Sumy, Ukraine
Artem Artyukhov: Faculty of Commerce, University of Economics in Bratislava, 852-35 Bratislava, Slovakia
Oleksandr Dluhopolskyi: Institute of Public Administration and Business, Lubelska Akademia WSEI, 20-209 Lublin, Poland

Energies, 2024, vol. 17, issue 4, 1-18

Abstract: The article aims to analyze the impact of green investments and the development of renewable energy on greenhouse gas emissions based on 223 countries in 2011–2021. The information base is the International Renewable Energy Agency, Our World in Data, Climate Policy Initiative, and FTSE Russell. Correlation analysis was used to check the data multicollinearity, multivariate regression analysis with stepwise variable entry—to formalize functional relationships. All variables characterizing the dynamics of green investments and the development of alternative energy, the number of annual investments in off-grid renewable energy has the largest impact on the amount of CO 2 and N 2 O. Thus, an annual investment increase of USD 1 million leads to a CO 2 emission increase of 4.5 kt and an N 2 O emission increase of 0.272 kt. Simultaneously, the green economy’s market capitalization level has the largest impact on the amount of CH 4 . In this case, a capitalization increases of USD 1 trillion leads to a CH 4 emission increase of 129.53 kt. The dynamics of renewable energy development have a statistically significant effect on only one of the three studied greenhouse gases—CO 2 emissions. Here, 1 MW growth of an absolute increase in off-grid renewable energy capacity leads to a 1171.17 kt reduction of CO 2 emissions. Checking input data for lags confirmed a time lag of one year between the level of green investments and the level of greenhouse gas emissions. That is, the impact of green investments on the level of greenhouse gas emissions is delayed by one year. The results of regression models taking into account lags confirmed that an increase in the level of green investments has a positive effect on reducing the level of greenhouse gas emissions (an increase in off-grid renewable energy annual investments of USD 1 million leads to a decrease in CO 2 of 1.18 kt and N 2 O of 1.102 kt; the increase in green economy market capitalization of USD 1 trillion leads to a decrease in CH 4 emissions of 0.64 kt).

Keywords: finance; renewable; greenhouse; carbon; emission; nitrous; methane; regression (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: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/4/804/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/4/804/ (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:17:y:2024:i:4:p:804-:d:1335401

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 ().