How Does Renewable Electricity Affect the Environment? The Fresh Evidence from an OPEC Member Country
Abstract
This study intends to measure the long- and short-run sensitivity of CO2 emissions to renewable electricity in Iran over 1971-2014. It indicates the potential of renewable electricity in reducing environmental degradation. The results of the Autoregressive Distributed Lag and the Error Correction model confirmed the negative impact of the electricity generated from renewable sources on CO2 emission. Moreover, the empirically obtained outcomes support the positive impact of energy consumption and GDP on CO2 emissions in the short and long terms. Based on the growth-enhancing and environment-degrading effects of energy consumption and environment-quality effects of renewable electricity, switching from conventional energy to modern sources must be considered in designing the national energy policies.
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References
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