Abstract
In today’s world, where the dramatic effects of climate change continue to increase, it is critical to turn from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources to achieve the CO2 emission reduction targets that countries have committed at the Paris Climate Agreement and COP 27 conference. This study analyzes the effects of macroeconomic factors, including economic growth, investments, and unemployment, on the transition to renewable energy in OECD countries. From 1996 to 2020, long-run relationships between variables were examined using advanced econometric methodologies for empirical analysis. For this purpose, panel data analysis, second-generation panel unit root tests, cross-sectional dependence tests, and panel cointegration tests were applied. Economically, in the long run, according to panel CCEMG and AMG estimator, while economic growth enhances the renewable energy transitions, investment does not statistically promote an impact on the renewable energy transitions. Renewable energy transition increases with unemployment. Moreover, the role of the considered variables in the renewable energy transition varies among country-specific. Within the framework of the results obtained, it has been proven that before determining policies for renewable energy transformation, it is necessary to do the necessary groundwork in the economy to increase economic growth and investments and reduce unemployment.
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Since the data of South Korea is not available, the data of 37 OECD member countries are used.
They are countries with a strong energy transition. These countries are Germany, USA, UK, Brazil, China, Canada, Japan, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Arab Emirates, India, South Africa, and Nigeria.
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İlkay Güler: writing—original draft, review and editing, methodology, conceptualization, data curation and processing, supervision. Murat Atan: writing—original draft, review and editing, methodology, data curation and processing. Zafer Adalı: writing—original draft, review and editing.
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Güler, İ., Atan, M. & Adalı, Z. The effect of economic growth, investment, and unemployment on renewable energy transition: evidence from OECD countries. Environ Sci Pollut Res 31, 52001–52016 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-34143-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-34143-7