Do High Oil Prices Obstruct the Transition to Renewable Energy Consumption?

Quantile causality and dependence between renewable energy consumption, WTI prices, and CO2 emissions: new evidence from the USA

This study investigates the Granger causal interplays between renewable energy consumption, WTI crude oil prices, and CO₂ emissions in the USA using monthly data between January 1986 and May 2022. The study applies quantile-based techniques, namely, the quantile unit root test developed by Galvao (2009), the quantile cointegration test proposed by Xiao (2009), and the novel Granger causality-in-quantiles test suggested by Troster (2018). The results suggest that the series display a unit root across different quantiles and that the cointegration relationships exhibit heterogeneous behavior across quantiles. Regarding the causal linkages, the findings show: (i) a unidirectional causality from renewable energy consumption to oil prices, mainly at the lowest or highest quantiles of the distribution, (ii) a bidirectional causality between oil prices and CO₂ emissions mainly in the middle and extreme quantiles, but there is evidence of causality from oil prices to CO₂ emissions across the quantiles than in the reverse direction, and (iii) a unidirectional causality from renewable energy consumption to CO₂ emissions at the lowest to medium and the highest quantiles. These findings have important implications for policy-makers.

Analyzing the nexus between energy transition, environment and ICT: A step towards COP26 targets

In line with the Sustainable Development Goals and the recent COP26 summit, energy transition, low carbon emissions and technology have become extremely important subjects in the agenda of governments and policymakers. The present study thus discusses the nexus between energy transition, economic growth, CO₂ emissions and information and communications technology (ICT) in BRICS countries applying the novel GMM-PVAR method proposed on the annual data for the period 2000-2017. This method is strong to the issue of endogeneity which is commonly faced in the context of panel data analysis but mostly ignored in the literature. The findings of this research demonstrate that carbon emissions have a positive and significant effect on energy transition; similarly, raising economic growth augments the consumption of energy transition. Furthermore, ICT is found to be a significant choice in the development of energy transition and the solution of environmental challenges. Overall, technological factors in addition to economic and environmental factors also have great roles in the development of renewable energy and energy transition. Thus, results from this study call for government supports to develop ICT across the BRICS countries.

Does environmental sustainability affect the renewable energy consumption? Nexus among trade openness, CO2 emissions, income inequality, renewable energy, and economic growth in OECD countries

This study investigates the impact of carbon emissions, real oil prices, income inequality, economic growth, and trade openness on renewable energy consumption (REC) in twenty-three (23) OECD economies. The study employs the Westerlund panel cointegration technique to verify the existence of long-run equilibrium and the Augmented Mean Group (AMG) estimator to assess the long-run relationship between the variables, which allows for slope heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependency. Moreover, the panel causality test of Dumitrescu and Hurlin (DH) is utilized to gauge the causal relationship between the variables. The findings of our study reveal that REC is positively related to economic growth, real oil prices, income inequality, and trade openness, but negatively related to CO₂ emissions in OECD countries. In addition, there is one-way causality from GDP per capita to renewable energy consumption and a bidirectional causality between income inequality and REC. Furthermore, the results indicate that OECD policymakers and governments should regard foreign trade as a "clean energy fostering mechanism" while developing energy demand policies that are environmentally friendly.

Exploring the Trend of Commodity Prices: A Review and Bibliometric Analysis

As the supply of commodities forms essential lifelines for modern society, commodity price fluctuations can significantly impact the operation and sustainable development of macroeconomics, production activities, and people’s security and well-being. The commodity trading market also plays a pivotal role in the competition of the international industrial chain and the sustainable development of the industry. The method of bibliometrics was used in this study to trace the development of research on commodity prices, and statistical and co-citation analyses were conducted on selected literature samples. It was found that the research hotspots in this field are concentrated on four aspects: factors influencing commodity prices, the impact of price fluctuations on the macroeconomy, forecasts of commodity prices, and the financialization of commodities. A current commodity price research network centered on oil prices has formed. Future directions in this field, which developed out of oil shock research 40 years ago, can further investigate the impact of factors and the responses that can be made to emergencies on commodity prices, as well as continuing to develop better methods of commodity price forecasting.

The impact of the US interest rate and oil prices on renewable energy in Turkey: a bootstrap ARDL approach

This research investigates the spillover effect of the US interest rate and oil prices on renewable energy utilization in Turkey. By employing a novel bootstrap autoregressive distributed lag approach on annual data from 1985 to 2016, the empirical findings and discussions represent the first contribution to the energy economics literature. The findings of this research confirm that the US interest rate has a significant spillover effect on the use of renewable energy in Turkey through the channels of income and local interest rate. Due to limited foreign exchange reserves, high foreign debt, low international reserves, and devaluation of the local currency, the Turkish economy is highly intertwined with the US economy through international investment and trade. All these factors reinforce the spillover influence of the US interest rate on energy consumption in Turkey. Moreover, this study affirms that the price of oil has a negative impact on renewable energy use through the real income channel. In order for Turkey to realize its investments in renewable energy resources more reliably and sustainably, the study suggests that policymakers should revise the current economic growth model by making it more resilient to external shocks such as the US interest rate, exchange rate, and oil prices.

Renewable energy consumption and local environmental effects for economic growth and carbon emission: evidence from global income countries

The use of renewable energy improves environmental quality by reducing carbon emission and influence economic growth where carbon emission also affect economic growth of a country. The economic theory of tourism also indicates that tourism development enhances economic growth through spillovers as well contributes to climate change. Financial development enhances economic growth; however, it also affects environmental quality. Based on the ongoing debate, the present research attempts to explore the effect of renewable energy consumption, tourism and financial development on economic growth and carbon emission in global income countries to know whether these impacts are the same globally for the low-income and high-income countries. Using panel data for the global panel, high-income and low-income countries for the period of 2002-2019, the results indicate that all variables affect economic growth and carbon emission significantly. Three common factors TORR, FDT and TO significantly increase economic growth while decrease carbon emission. Renewable energy and TORA also reduce emission, while TORX, FDB and economic growth are the drivers of carbon emission; however, this effect varies in different income countries. The results evidence the environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis only in high-income countries. These results suggest that enhancing tourism and financial development mitigates emission level and enhances economic growth; however, renewable energy consumption reduces both. The study has shown that these variables are not the same as the economic growth and emission levels of different income groups are not the same, but it changes. In addition, the foundation of this study has a great deal of recommendations for income group economic and environmental decision make-up.

Natural resources commodity prices volatility and economic performance: Evidence from China pre and post COVID-19

Volatility in the prices of natural resources particularly in the Covid-19 period is the subject of major concern in recent times. Although many studies have empirically investigated the influence of oil prices on economic growth and Covid-19 on oil prices. However, the current study contributes to the literature by investigating the causal linkage of natural resources commodity prices and economic growth in the pre and post Covid-19 period for China over the period from January 01, 2019, to April 01, 2021. This study employed the wavelet power spectrum, and the wavelet coherence approaches, and the frequency domain causality test, which is known for the causal identification in the long-run, medium-run, and short-run. The empirical findings reveal that the natural resource commodity prices are more vulnerable than the economic performance particularly in the Covid-19 peak period in China. However, the wavelet coherence approach demonstrates that a bidirectional causal association exists between natural resources commodity prices and economic performance at different frequencies and time periods. Additionally, the frequency domain causality test confirms that the natural resource commodity prices volatility significantly causes economic performance only in the medium-run. Based on the empirical findings, this study recommends that innovative technological and precautionary measures must be taken to accommodate or overcome natural disasters in the future, and tackle natural resources commodity prices volatility.

The Impact of Oil Price on Transition toward Renewable Energy Consumption? Evidence from Russia

This research investigates the impact of oil price, income and carbon dioxide emissions on renewable energy consumption in Russia for the data period from 1990 to 2015, using the Vector Error Correction Models and the Canonical Cointegrating Regression method. This article is the only study conducting individual time-series analysis that emphasizes the effect of oil price on renewable energy consumption in the case of Russia. The results of empirical analysis conclude that oil price affects renewable energy consumption negatively. The negative oil price effects on renewable energy use can be interpreted as a sign of issue that stems from higher oil prices and slows the transition from conventional to renewable energy sources. Additionally, we found that there is a positive and statistically significant influence of real GDP per capita as a proxy of income on renewable energy consumption, whereas the carbon dioxide emissions have a negative and statistically insignificant influence on renewable energy consumption. Considering these empirical results, Russia, which has a significant share in energy production in the world, should focus on the use of renewable energy in order to maintain this superiority and its sustainability. The findings of this paper may be useful to policymakers and may help to contribute to existing literature for future research in the case of oil-exporting countries.

The Impact of Oil Price Shocks on National Income: Evidence from Azerbaijan

This study investigates the influence of oil price shocks on GDP per capita, exchange rate, and total trade turnover in Azerbaijan using the Structural Vector Autoregressive (SVAR) method to data collected from 1992 to 2019. The estimation results of the SVAR method conclude that oil price shocks (rise in oil prices) affect GDP per capita and total trade turnover positively, whereas its influence on the exchange rate is negative in the case of Azerbaijan. According to results of this study, Azerbaijan and similar oil-exporting countries should reduce the dependence of GDP per capita, the exchange rate, and total trade turnover from oil resources and its prices in the global market. Therefore, these countries should attempt to the diversification of GDP per capita, the exchange rate, and other sources of total trade turnover.

Gasoline Demand Elasticities at the Backdrop of Lower Oil Prices: Fuel-Subsidizing Country Case

This study investigates the income and price elasticities of gasoline demand for a fuel subsidizing country case, applying three different time-varying coefficient approaches to the data spanning the period from January 2002 to June 2018. The empirical estimations concluded a cointegration relationship between gasoline demand, income, and gasoline price. The income elasticity found ranges from 0.10 to 0.29, while the price elasticity remains constant over time, being −0.15. Income elasticity increases over time, slightly decreasing close to the end of the period, which is specific for a developing country. In the short run, gasoline demand does not respond to the changes in income and price. The policy implications are discussed based on the findings of the study. Research results show that since the income elasticity of demand is not constant, the use of constant elasticities obtained in previous studies might be misleading for policymaking purposes. An increase in income elasticity might be the cause of the inefficiency of the existing vehicles. The small price elasticity allows to say that if policy makers plan to reduce gasoline consumption then increasing its price would not substantially reduce the consumption. The current situation can be utilized to increase energy efficiency and implement eco-friendly technologies. For this purpose, the quality of existing transport modes can be improved. Meanwhile, to meet households’ needs, policies such as providing soft auto loans need to be formed to balance the recent drop in car sales.

The Financial Development-Renewable Energy Consumption Nexus in the Case of Azerbaijan

This article analyzed the relationship between financial development, renewable energy consumption, economic growth, and energy prices in Azerbaijan by employing time series data for the time span of 1993–2015. The autoregressive distributed lagged (ARDL) technique was applied in empirical estimations, because it performs better than all the alternative techniques in small samples, which was the case here in this article. The results of estimation found that there is a positive and statistically significant influence of financial development and economic growth on renewable energy consumption, whereas the prices of energy proxied by CPI have an adverse impact on renewable energy consumption in Azerbaijan. Also, estimation results demonstrated that a 1% rise in financial development, proxied by domestic credit as a percentage of GDP, and economic growth increase renewable energy consumption by 0.16% and 0.60%, respectively. The different financial development impacts on renewable energy consumption and related policy implications were also introduced.