Abstract
Unsustainable development and rising environmental degradation are major challenges for emerging nations that tend to promote human welfare by expanding economic development. Green energy transition (GETR) can help these nations to continue their development, reduce fossil fuel utilization, and achieve environmental sustainability. However, previous literature overlooks the importance of green technologies, government stability, and economic globalization in the GETR process. Accordingly, this research takes a step forward and assesses the impacts of green technologies (GT), government stability (GOV), and economic globalization (EGL) on green energy transition including population density (POP) and economic growth (GDP) in emerging seven (E-7) countries from 1992 to 2020. The research applied the “continuously updated fully modified (CuP-FM)” methodology to acquire the long-run findings robust to endogeneity stationary regressors, autocorrelation, and cross-sectional dependence (CD). The results highlighted that green technologies can be enhanced to accelerate the energy transition process since GETR and green technologies are positively connected. Also, government stability and economic globalization support the green energy transition. However, both population density and economic growth obstruct the energy transition process. The Emirmahmutoğlu and Kose test unveiled that green technologies, economic globalization, and government stability Granger cause the green energy transition. Based on these findings, policies are directed to promote the GETR by enhancing green technologies, economic globalization, and government stability for achieving ecological sustainability.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The datasets analyzed in the study can be downloaded from the references provided in the paper.
Change history
01 August 2023
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-29072-w
References
Adebayo TS, Kirikkaleli D (2021) Impact of renewable energy consumption, globalization, and technological innovation on environmental degradation in Japan: application of wavelet tools. Environ Dev Sustain 23:16057–16082. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-021-01322-2
Ahmed Z, Ahmad M, Murshed M et al (2022) How do green energy technology investments, technological innovation, and trade globalization enhance green energy supply and stimulate environmental sustainability in the G7 countries? Gondwana Res 112:105–115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gr.2022.09.014
Ahmed Z, Le HP (2021) Linking information communication technology, trade globalization index, and CO2 emissions: evidence from advanced panel techniques. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28:8770–8781. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11205-0
Alam MM, Murad MW (2020) The impacts of economic growth, trade openness and technological progress on renewable energy use in organization for economic co-operation and development countries. Renew Energy 145:382–390. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.RENENE.2019.06.054
Altıntaş H, Kassouri Y (2020) The impact of energy technology innovations on cleaner energy supply and carbon footprints in Europe: a linear versus nonlinear approach. J Clean Prod 276:124140. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.124140
Ari G (2023) A Low Carbon Pathway for the Turkish Electricity Generation Sector. Green and Low-Carbon Economy. https://doi.org/10.47852/bonviewGLCE3202552
Bai J, Kao C, Ng S (2009) Panel cointegration with global stochastic trends. J Econom 149:82–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconom.2008.10.012
Bamati N, Raoofi A (2020) Development level and the impact of technological factor on renewable energy production. Renew Energy 151:946–955. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2019.11.098
Bellakhal R, Ben Kheder S, Haffoudhi H (2019) Governance and renewable energy investment in MENA countries: how does trade matter? Energy Econ 84:104541. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2019.104541
Can M, Ahmed Z (2022) Towards sustainable development in the European Union countries: does economic complexity affect renewable and non-renewable energy consumption? Sustain Dev 31(1):439–451. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.2402
Chen W, Lei Y (2018) The impacts of renewable energy and technological innovation on environment-energy-growth nexus: new evidence from a panel quantile regression. Renew Energy 123:1–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2018.02.026
Climate Trade (2021) Which countries are the world’s biggest carbon polluters? https://climatetrade.com/which-countries-arethe-worlds-biggest-carbon-polluters/. Accessed 10 Mar 2023
Dai J, Ahmed Z, Sinha A et al (2023) Sustainable green electricity, technological innovation, and ecological footprint: does democratic accountability moderate the nexus? Util Policy 82:101541. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jup.2023.101541
Dasgupta S, De Cian E (2018) The influence of institutions, governance, and public opinion on the environment: synthesized findings from applied econometrics studies. Energy Res Soc Sci 43:77–95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2018.05.023
Destek MA, Aslan A (2020) Disaggregated renewable energy consumption and environmental pollution nexus in G-7 countries. Renew Energy 151:1298–1306. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2019.11.138
Dietz T, Rosa EA (1997) Effects of population and affluence on CO2 emissions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, pp 175–179
Emirmahmutoglu F, Kose N (2011) Testing for Granger causality in heterogeneous mixed panels. Econ Model 28:870–876. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econmod.2010.10.018
Gan J, Smith CT (2011) Drivers for renewable energy: a comparison among OECD countries. Biomass and Bioenergy 35:4497–4503. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biombioe.2011.03.022
Geng JB, Ji Q (2016) Technological innovation and renewable energy development: evidence based on patent counts. Int J Glob Environ Issues 15:217–234. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJGENVI.2016.076945
Godawska J, Wyrobek J (2021) The impact of environmental policy stringency on renewable energy production in the Visegrad Group countries. Energies 14:1–23. https://doi.org/10.3390/en14196225
Gozgor G, Mahalik MK, Demir E, Padhan H (2020) The impact of economic globalization on renewable energy in the OECD countries. Energy Policy 139:111365. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2020.111365
Gygli S, Haelg F, Potrafke N, Sturm JE (2019) The KOF Globalisation Index – revisited. Rev Int Organ 14:543–574. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11558-019-09344-2
Hussain M, Mir GM, Usman M et al (2020) Analysing the role of environment-related technologies and carbon emissions in emerging economies: a step towards sustainable development. Environ Technol 43(3):367–375. https://doi.org/10.1080/09593330.2020.1788171
ICRG (2021) ICRG methodology. https://www.prsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/icrgmethodology.pdf/. Accessed 15 Sept 2022
Irandoust M (2016) The renewable energy-growth nexus with carbon emissions and technological innovation: evidence from the Nordic countries. Ecol Indic 69:118–125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2016.03.051
Jafri MAH, Liu H (2023) Eco-innovation and its influence on renewable energy demand: the role of environmental law. Int J Environ Res Public Health 20:3194. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20043194
Kanat O, Yan Z, Asghar MM et al (2022) Do natural gas, oil, and coal consumption ameliorate environmental quality? Empirical evidence from Russia. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29:4540–4556. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15989-7
Khan Z, Ali S, Umar M et al (2020) Consumption-based carbon emissions and international trade in G7 countries: the role of environmental innovation and renewable energy. Sci Total Environ 730:138945. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138945
Le HP, Sarkodie SA (2020) Dynamic linkage between renewable and conventional energy use, environmental quality and economic growth: evidence from emerging market and developing economies. Energy Reports 6:965–973. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2020.04.020
Li J, Zhang X, Ali S, Khan Z (2020) Eco-innovation and energy productivity: new determinants of renewable energy consumption. J Environ Manage 271:111028. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JENVMAN.2020.111028
Majeed A, Ahmad M, Rasheed MF et al (2022) The dynamic impact of financial globalization, environmental innovations and energy productivity on renewable energy consumption: evidence from advanced panel techniques. Front Environ Sci 10:447. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2022.894857
Nekrasov SA, Egorova NE (2023) Coordination of the Development of Renewable Energy and Small Business as a Mechanism for Ensuring the Sustainable Development of Russia. Green and Low-Carbon Economy. https://doi.org/10.47852/bonviewGLCE3202591
OECD (2022) Patents on environment technologies. https://data.oecd.org/envpolicy/patents-on-environment-technologies.htm/. Accessed 15 Mar 2023
OWD (2023) Our world in data. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/renewable-share-energy/. Accessed 20 Mar 2023
Pata UK (2021) Linking renewable energy, globalization, agriculture, CO2 emissions and ecological footprint in BRIC countries: a sustainability perspective. Renew Energy 173:197–208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2021.03.125
Pata UK, Isik C (2021) Determinants of the load capacity factor in China: a novel dynamic ARDL approach for ecological footprint accounting. Resour Policy 74:102313. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2021.102313
Pedroni P (1999) Critical values for cointegration tests in heterogeneous panels with multiple regressors. Oxf Bull Econ Stat 61:653–670. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0084.61.s1.14
Peng G, Meng F, Ahmed Z et al (2022) A path towards green revolution: how do environmental technologies, political risk, and environmental taxes influence green energy consumption? Front Environ Sci 10:1–8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2022.927333
Pesaran MH (2007) A simple panel unit root test in the presence of cross section dependence. J Appl Econom 47:265–312. https://doi.org/10.1002/jae
Shahbaz M, Mallick H, Mahalik MK, Sadorsky P (2016) The role of globalization on the recent evolution of energy demand in India: implications for sustainable development. Energy Econ 55:52–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2016.01.013
Sharif A, Saqib N, Dong K, Khan SAR (2022) Nexus between green technology innovation, green financing, and CO2 emissions in the G7 countries: the moderating role of social globalisation. Sustain Dev 30:1934–1946. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.2360
Sharma R, Shahbaz M, Kautish P, Vo XV (2021) Analyzing the impact of export diversification and technological innovation on renewable energy consumption: evidences from BRICS nations. Renew Energy 178:1034–1045. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2021.06.125
Sinha A, Sengupta T, Alvarado R (2020) Interplay between technological innovation and environmental quality: formulating the SDG policies for next 11 economies. J Clean Prod 242:118549. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.118549
Su CW, Umar M, Khan Z (2021) Does fiscal decentralization and eco-innovation promote renewable energy consumption? Analyzing the role of political risk. Sci Total Environ 751:142220. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.142220
Tang T, Shahzad F, Ahmed Z et al (2022) Energy transition for meeting ecological goals: do economic stability, technology, and government stability matter? Front Environ Sci 10:1–13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2022.955494
Ulucak R, Bilgili F (2018) A reinvestigation of EKC model by ecological footprint measurement for high, middle and low income countries. J Clean Prod 188:144–157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.03.191
UN (2021) United Nations, Department of economic and social affairs sustainable development, the 17 goals. Available at: https://sdgs.un.org/goals/. Accessed 5 Mar 2023
United Nations (2022) United Nations. Renewable energy – powering a safer future. https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/raising-ambition/renewable-energy/. Accessed 5 Mar 2023
Usman O, Iorember PT, Jelilov G et al (2021) Towards mitigating ecological degradation in G-7 countries: accounting for economic effect dynamics, renewable energy consumption, and innovation. Heliyon 7:e08592. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e08592
Vural G (2021) Analyzing the impacts of economic growth, pollution, technological innovation and trade on renewable energy production in selected Latin American countries. Renew Energy 171:210–216. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2021.02.072
WDI (2022) World Development Indicators (WDI). https://datatopics.worldbank.org/world-development-indicators/. Accessed 5 Mar 2023
Westerlund J (2007) Testing for error correction in panel data. Oxf Bull Econ Stat 69:709–748. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0084.2007.00477.x
Westerlund J (2008) Panel cointegration tests of the Fisher effect. J Appl Econom 23:193–233. https://doi.org/10.1002/jae.967
Worldometers (2023) Countries in the world by population (2023). https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/population-by-country/. 15 Mar 2023
Zafar MW, Shahbaz M, Hou F, Sinha A (2019) From nonrenewable to renewable energy and its impact on economic growth: the role of research & development expenditures in Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation countries. J Clean Prod 212:1166–1178. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.12.081
Zhou A, Li J (2022) How do trade liberalization and human capital affect renewable energy consumption? Evidence from the panel threshold model. Renew Energy 184:332–342. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.RENENE.2021.11.096
Funding
This work was supported by the Researchers Supporting Project number (RSP2023R58), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
JH: methodology, conceptualization, administration, and writing original manuscript; DX: writing original manuscript, validation, and formal analysis; ZA: writing, editing, reviewing, analysis, supervision, writing original manuscript, and visualization; SK: writing original manuscript and data curation; DK: writing, review and editing and corrections.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethics approval and consent to participate
NA.
Consent for publication
NA.
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Responsible Editor: Ilhan Ozturk
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
The original online version of this article was revised: The correct name of the 4th Author is Salahuddin Khan.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Han, ., Xie, D., Ahmed, Z. et al. Green technologies, government stability, and green energy transition in a globalized world: evidence from E-7 nations. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 92255–92266 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-28916-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-28916-9