School of Economics Management and Law, University of South China, Hengyang, 421001, People's Republic of China.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2021 Aug;28(29):39993-40010. doi: 10.1007/s11356-021-13611-4. Epub 2021 Mar 26.
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has promoted the deployment of renewable energy to achieve sustainability. It is essential to reveal the influence of renewable energy on low-carbon economic development. The share of renewable energy consumption (SREC) is taken as the core explanatory variable in this paper, and its impacts on carbon emission intensity (CEI) and economic growth are investigated from the spatial-temporal perspective. First, the panel Granger causality test is applied for revealing the causal links among SREC, CEI, and economic growth during 1999-2017. Then, this paper investigates the impacts of SREC on economic growth and CEI through rigorous econometric techniques. Based on the regression results, Shapley value decomposition is utilized to account for the cross-country inequalities of economic growth and CEI. The main findings are as follows: (1) There exist bidirectional Granger causalities between SREC, economic growth, and CEI, which shows there is a systematic link between the three variables. (2) All models demonstrate SREC negatively influences economic growth, indicating renewable energy deployment costs are urgent to be decreased with SREG increasing. Besides, capital investment and openness positively affect economic growth, but energy intensity has an opposite impact. (3) From the spatial heterogeneity perspective, the cross-country inequality in economic growth is primarily due to the regional inequality of capital investment, followed by energy intensity and SREC. By contrast, the impacts of labor and openness are negligible. (4) SREC has a negative effect on CEI. In addition, an inverted U-shaped nexus between economic growth and CEI is observed. Energy intensity positively affects CEI, while the impacts of urbanization and openness are insignificant. (5) From the spatial heterogeneity perspective, the cross-country CEI inequality is mostly caused by the inequality of energy intensity, followed by SREC, urbanization, and economic growth, while the contribution of the openness gap is little. This article provides important implications for low-carbon development in the BRI countries.
“一带一路”倡议推动了可再生能源的部署，以实现可持续发展。揭示可再生能源对低碳经济发展的影响至关重要。本文以可再生能源消费（SREC）为核心解释变量，从时空角度考察了其对碳排放强度（CEI）和经济增长的影响。首先，应用面板格兰杰因果检验揭示了 1999-2017 年期间 SREC、CEI 和经济增长之间的因果关系。然后，本文通过严格的计量经济学技术研究了 SREC 对经济增长和 CEI 的影响。基于回归结果，利用 Shapley 值分解来解释经济增长和 CEI 的国家间不平等。主要结论如下：（1）SREC、经济增长和 CEI 之间存在双向格兰杰因果关系，表明这三个变量之间存在系统联系。（2）所有模型均表明 SREC 对经济增长产生负面影响，表明随着 SREG 的增加，迫切需要降低可再生能源部署成本。此外，资本投资和开放度对经济增长有积极影响，而能源强度则有相反的影响。（3）从空间异质性的角度来看，经济增长的国家间不平等主要归因于资本投资的区域不平等，其次是能源强度和 SREC。相比之下，劳动力和开放度的影响可以忽略不计。（4）SREC 对 CEI 有负面影响。此外，观察到经济增长和 CEI 之间存在倒 U 型关系。能源强度对 CEI 有积极影响，而城市化和开放度的影响则不显著。（5）从空间异质性的角度来看，CEI 的国家间不平等主要归因于能源强度的不平等，其次是 SREC、城市化和经济增长，而开放度差距的贡献较小。本文为“一带一路”国家的低碳发展提供了重要启示。
