İşletme ve Ekonomi Araştırmaları Dergisi, vol.12, no.4, pp.751-766, 2021 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)
This study examines the effects of renewable and non-renewable energy
consumption and economic growth on CO2 emissions for 53 developing countries during
the period 1990-2014. For this purpose, the study employs a two-step difference
Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) approach. Empirical results show that there is
an inverted U-shaped relationship between economic growth and CO2 emissions, which
shows the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. The effect of
renewable energy consumption (REC) on CO2 emissions was found to be negative and
significant, while the effect of non-renewable energy consumption (NREC) was positive
and significant. Moreover, both renewable and non-renewable energy consumption
positively affect economic growth. Thus, for developing countries aiming to reduce CO2
emissions and the consequent environmental pollution, it is necessary to reduce the
share of NREC in total energy consumption and to increase the share of REC.
Furthermore, because NREC positively affects economic growth, the efficiency of nonrenewable energy resources should be increased in order not to damage the economic
growth process while decreasing the use.