Sustainable economic performance and transition towards cleaner energy to mitigate climate change risk: evidence from top emerging economies

Abstract

It is reasonable to expect that the energy needs of the top emerging economies will increase over the coming decades as their economies expand rapidly. There may be environmental costs to using conventional energy from fossil fuels to meet increased energy demand. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the link between energy efficiency and energy transition along with additional control variables like research and development expenditures, trade, and gross domestic product for the top 10 emerging countries between 1990 and 2021. To study the case of these targeted economies, the authors use panel data and novel panel data econometrics techniques for a long-run relationship like the MMQR to observe changes over time between the variables, which is useful in the empirical evidence. The models’ primary findings are as follows: The panel cointegration tests confirm log-run associations among the targeted variables. Energy efficiency has the largest influence on the energy transition. The control variables like RDR and TRA decrease renewable energy consumption in the targeted economies. The findings also support the notion that GDP drives renewable energy consumption in the leading emerging economies. Numerous important ecological sustainability-related plans are recommended to the concerned governments based on research findings.

Keywords:

• Energy efficiency
• energy transition
• R&D expenditures
• trade
• method of movement quantile regression (MMQR)

JEL CODES:

• O13; Q43; Q57

Disclosure statement

No conflict of interest has been reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Nanchang Normal University Doctoral Research Startup Foundation (Grant ID: NSBSJJ2022008).