Department of Economics, University of Wah, Quaid Avenue, Wah Cantt, Pakistan.
Department of Management, College of Business Administration, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2019 Jan;26(3):2806-2819. doi: 10.1007/s11356-018-3837-6. Epub 2018 Nov 28.
The relationship between renewable energy consumption (REC), foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows, economic growth, and their resulting impact on CO2 emissions is widely discussed area in energy and environmental literature; however, there is an unseen literature on moderation and mediation effect of per capita income and FDI inflows with the renewable energy consumption on CO2 emissions in developing countries like Pakistan, which is being evaluated in this study by using a consistent time series data for a period of 1975-2016. The results show that economic growth and FDI inflows both increase CO2 emissions, while REC substantially decreases CO2 emissions during the study time period. The results do not support the inverted U-shaped Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis for per capita income (and FDI inflows) and per capita CO2 emissions in a country. The results supported 'pollution haven hypothesis' where FDI inflows damage the natural flora of the country. By inclusion of moderation and mediation effect of per capita income and FDI inflows with the REC on CO2 emissions averted the positive impact of REC, and converted into negative externality, where environmental sustainability agenda is compromised by lower environmental regulations and unsustainable production techniques that increase country's economic growth. The study concludes that by adding REC in existing energy portfolio may help to reduce CO2 emissions while strict environmental compliance may disregard the negative externality of unsustainable production and it will support to achieve green development programmes in a country.
可再生能源消费 (REC)、外国直接投资 (FDI) 流入、经济增长及其对二氧化碳排放的影响之间的关系是能源和环境文献中广泛讨论的领域；然而，在巴基斯坦等发展中国家，人均收入和 FDI 流入对 REC 与 CO2 排放关系的调节和中介效应的文献尚未被关注，本研究使用了 1975-2016 年期间一致的时间序列数据对此进行了评估。结果表明，经济增长和 FDI 流入都会增加 CO2 排放，而 REC 在研究期间大幅减少 CO2 排放。结果不支持人均收入（和 FDI 流入）与人均 CO2 排放之间的倒 U 型环境库兹涅茨曲线 (EKC) 假说。结果支持“污染避难所假说”，即 FDI 流入破坏了国家的自然植被。通过纳入人均收入和 FDI 流入与 REC 对 CO2 排放的调节和中介效应，REC 的积极影响被消除，并转化为负面的外部性，环境可持续性议程因较低的环境法规和不可持续的生产技术而受到损害，这些技术会增加国家的经济增长。研究结论表明，在现有能源组合中增加 REC 可能有助于减少 CO2 排放，而严格的环境合规可能会忽视不可持续生产的负面外部性，并支持在一个国家实现绿色发展计划。
