Effects of renewable energy consumption and trade on environmental pollution

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of (non-renewable and renewable) energy consumption and trade on environmental pollution in an environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) setting in Turkey for the 1965–2016 period.Design/methodology/approachBesides conventionally used unit root tests, Zivot–Andrews unit-root test is also employed to account for a possible structural break. To investigate the interrelationships among the variables, the autoregressive distributed lag and the vector error correction methodologies are employed.FindingsThe results verify the EKC hypothesis. Moreover, increases in trade and non-renewable energy consumption rise carbon emissions in long run, while renewable energy consumption reduces it in both short- and long-run. The causality analysis reveals that there are bi-directional long-run causalities between non-renewable energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions, and between trade and carbon dioxide emissions. Additionally, the neutrality hypothesis is valid for the renewable energy consumption-income nexus in both short- and long-run. For the non-renewable energy consumption-income nexus, the neutrality hypothesis holds only in short-run and the conservation hypothesis holds only in long-run.Originality/valueThis is the first study which incorporates both renewable energy consumption and trade into its environmental pollution model for Turkey. Moreover, by investigating short- and long-run causalities among the employed variables, more robust policy implications are put forward. Lastly, this study employs a longer sample period and considers a structural break in its models.