Abstract
The G20 nations collectively accounted for a significant portion of global CO2 emissions due to their vast economies and rising energy demand. While some G20 nations have made substantial efforts to reduce their emissions through policies such as renewable energy incentives and carbon pricing, others may still heavily rely on fossil fuels for energy production and industrial processes. Therefore, this recent study endeavored to investigate the relationship between nuclear energy consumption (NEC), crude oil (CO), and Economic Policy uncertainty (EPU) with CO2 emissions in three economic sectors of G20 nations. Despite voluminous research work conducted on mitigating CO2 emission, To the best of our understanding, this paper marks the inaugural endeavor to investigate the impact of the afore-mentioned variables in three-sector-model with emission across G20 countries. To achieve this objective, we carried out a range of examinations, encompassing panel unit root and cointegration tests, followed by panel DOLS, ARDL, and the Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality test, spanning the period from 1990–2022. The panel ARDL results indicate that while CO increases carbon emissions in the short term, NEC decreases them. In terms of the synergy between NEC and EPU, it's noteworthy to mention that the collective impact of increase in NEC and decrease in EPU reduces the emission in three-sectors. Nevertheless, in the long term, EPU exhibits a negative correlation with emissions across three sectors. Hence, the current research proposes waning EPU as a deliberate strategy to reduce emissions under careful consideration of its potential effects and feasibility within broader economic and policy contexts.