Can renewable energy be used as an effective tool in the decarbonization of the Mediterranean region: fresh evidence under cross-sectional dependence.

Many studies in the literature confirm the validity of the technique effect, which improves the quality of the environment by investigating whether an inverted U-shaped relationship exists between environmental pollution and economic growth. Ignoring the role of the technological obsolescence effect, which may also exert influence on an economy, these studies reach an optimistic conclusion for growth policies. By controlling renewable energy, this study examines the existence of the obsolescence effect by constructing an N-shaped relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation for the most vulnerable countries in the Mediterranean region to climate change. We conducted a battery of cross-sectional dependence tests, second-generation panel unit root, and cointegration tests in 17 selected Mediterranean countries covering 1990-2017. The results provide evidence of an N-shaped relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation. The study provides important policy recommendations and discusses how renewable energy can be deployed to reduce CO2 emissions.

The impact of economic growth, energy consumption, trade openness, and financial development on carbon emissions: empirical evidence from Turkey.

This study examines the impact of economic growth, energy consumption, trade openness, financial development on carbon emissions for the case of Turkey by using annual time series data for the period of 1960-2013. The Lee and Strazicich test suggests that the variables are suitable for applying the bounds testing approach to cointegration. The cointegration analysis reveals that there exists a long-run relationship between the per capita real income, per capita energy consumption, trade openness, financial development, and per capita carbon emissions in the presence of structural breaks. The results show that in the long run, carbon emissions are mainly determined by economic growth, energy consumption, trade openness, and financial development. The VECM Granger causality analysis indicates a long-run unidirectional causality running from economic growth, energy consumption, trade openness, and financial development to carbon emissions. The findings also show that the EKC hypothesis is valid for Turkey both in the long run and short run. The study provides some implications for policy makers to decrease carbon emissions in Turkey.