The impact of renewable energy rebates on environmental sustainability in Australia

Figures & data

Table 1. Variables measurement and sources.

Variables	Abbreviation	Units	Source
Carbon emissions	CO2	Metric tons	WDI, 2021
Premium feed-in tariffs	PFIT	Renewable energy (solar) feed-in tariff US dollars	OECD statistics, 2021
Renewable energy target	RET	Total renewable energy installation sponsored through large-scale renewable energy target programs and small-scale renewable energy schemes (megawatt)	Australian Government-Clean Energy Regulator (2021)
Gross domestic product	GDP	Constant US dollars, 2010	WDI, 2021
Trade	TRD	Constant US dollars, 2010	WDI, 2021
Population density	POP	Total number of people per square kilometre of land area	WDI, 2021

Source: authors’ computations.

Table 2. ADF unit-root test.

Variables	Intercepts		Trend and intercepts
	Test statistics	Decision	Test statistics	Decision
InPFIT	−2.645	I(1)	−4.461	I(1)
InCO2	3.027	I(0)	−6.023	I(1)
InTRD	−3.005	I(0)	−4.655	I(1)
InGDP	−2.664	I(0)	−5.301	I(1)
POPD	−2.654	I(1)	−3.337	I(0)
RET	−2.922	I(0)	−3.917	I(1)

Note: The critical value is significance at 10 per cent level.

Figure 1. Premium feed-in tariffs trends.

Figure 2. Carbon emissions trends.

Figure 3. Renewable energy target trend.

Table 3. Descriptive statistics.

Variable	Obs	Mean	Std. Dev.	Min	Max
CO2	22	17.11	1.295	13.95	18.455
PFIT	22	0.225	0.085	0.143	0.44
RET	22	−16,050.909	18,120.953	−46,967	6492
GDP	22	73,293.735	5673.332	62,634.947	80,987.722
TRD	22	41.925	2.059	37.03	45.827
POPD	22	2.897	0.288	2.477	3.34

Source: authors’ computations.

Table 4. Pairwise correlations.

Variables	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)
(1) CO2	1.000
(2) PFIT	−0.094	1.000
(3) RET	−0.829***	0.409*	1.000
(4) GDP	−0.786***	0.398*	0.988***	1.000
(5) TRD	−0.212	0.080	0.300	0.276	1.000
(6) POPD	−0.895***	0.341	0.988***	0.970***	0.326	1.000

Note: *** represents significance at 1 per cent.

Source: authors’ computations.

Table 5. Bound cointegration test.

Cointegration hypotheses	F-statistics
FinCO2 (InPFITt| InGDPt| POPDt| InTRDt)	18.209
FinCO2 (RETt| InGDPt| POPDt| InTRDt)	6.463

Note: *** and ** represent significance at 1 and 5 per cent level, respectively. Asymptotic critical value bounds are obtained from Kripfganz and Schneider (2018).

Source: authors’ computations.

Table 6. ARDL–ECM (Dep: InCO₂) (1 2 0 2 1).

Variables	InCO2t
Short run
ΔInPFITt	0.080***
	(0.0205)
ΔInPFITt-1	0.039*
	(0.021)
ΔInTRDt	0.149*
	(0.077)
ΔInTRDt-1	0.069
	(0.060)
ΔInPOPDt-1	8.634***
	(1.372)
Long-run
InPFITt	−0.017*
	(0.008)
InGDPt	0.374**
	(0.147)
InTRDt	−0.131
	(0.087)
POPDt	−0.924***
	(0.116)
ECT	−1.484***
	(0.270)
Constant	0.040
	(1.111)
R-squared	0.922

Note: ***, **, and * represent statistical significance at the 1, 5 and 10 per cent levels, respectively; t-statistics in (); Δ = Difference Operator; ln = Natural logarithm; PFIT = Premium feed-in tariffs; GDP = Gross Domestic Product; POPD = Population density; TRD = Trade Openness.

Source: authors’ computations.

Table 7. ARDL–ECM (Dep: InCO₂) (1 1 2 0 2).

Variables	InCO2t
Short run
ΔRETt	−0.007***
	(0.002)
ΔInGDPt	−0.898*
	(0.478)
ΔInGDPt-1	−1.575***
	(0.474)
ΔPOPDt	7.400***
	(1.898)
ΔInPOPDt-1	−3.393*
	(1.706)
Long-run
RETt	−0.008*
	(0.004)
InGDPt	−0.683
	(0.737)
InTRDt	−0.623*
	(0.328)
POPDt	−4.090**
	(1.525)
ECT	−0.438**
	(0.158)
Constant	3.320**
	(1.299)
R-squared	0.897

Note: ***, **, and * represent statistical significance at the 1, 5 and 10 per cent levels, respectively; t-statistics in (); Δ = Difference Operator; ln = Natural logarithm; RET = Renewable energy target; GDP = Gross Domestic Product; POPD = Population density; TRD = Trade Openness.

Source: authors’ computations.

Table 8. CCR results (Dep: InCO₂).

Variables	2000–2010	2011–2021
	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)
	InCO2t	InCO2t	InCO2t	InCO2t
InPFITt	−9.431***		5.288***
	(0.009)		(0.002)
RETt		−0.001***		−0.004***
		(0.000)		(4.24e−10)
InGDPt	9.849***	0.001	49.23***	0.001
	(0.005)	(0.002)	(0.003)	(0.002)
InTRDt	−1.181***	0.0872***	−41.10***	−0.622***
	(0.003)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.003)
POPDt-	5.579***	0.086***	21.33***	0.018***
	(0.009)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.003)
Constant	−53.26***	−0.256***	−1.702***	0.001
	(0.003)	(0.006)	(0.001)	(0.010)
Observations	9	9	9	9
R-squared	0.999	0.233	0.860	0.993

Standard errors in parentheses.

*** p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05, * p < 0.1.

Table 9. FMOL results (Dep: InCO₂).

Variables	(1)	(2)
	InCO2t	InCO2t
InPFITt	−0.161***
	(0.007)
InRETt		−0.003*
		(0.003)
InGDPt	−0.305***	−0.271*
	(0.111)	(0.785)
InTRDt	−0.013	0.087
	(0.038)	(0.178)
InPOPDt	6.06***	0.001**
	(0.377)	(2.522)
Linear	−0.046***	−0.015**
	(0.003)	(0.014)
Constant	0.587	0.001
	(0.600)	(4.546)
Observations	21	21
R-squared	0.589	0.603

Note: ***, **, and * represent statistical significance at the 1, 5 and 10 per cent levels, respectively; t-statistics in (); ln = Natural logarithm; PFIT = Premium feed-in tariffs; RET = Renewable energy target; GDP = Gross Domestic Product; POPD = Population density; TRD = Trade Openness.

Source: authors’ computations.

Kripfganz, S., and D. C. Schneider. 2018. "ARDL: Estimating Autoregressive Distributed Lag and Equilibrium Correction Models." Proceedings of the 2018 London Stata Conference.

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