Clean energy consumption and CO emissions: does China reduce some pollution burdens through environmental regulation?

Environmental regulations are considered a prerequisite for environmental performance. However, very limited studies have explored the asymmetric relationship between clean energy consumption, environmental regulation, and CO emissions. This study scrutinizes the asymmetry phenomenon in environmental regulation-clean energy consumption and environmental quality nexus in China by using the time series nonlinear ARDL approach by covering the period 1993-2019. The result reveals that the impact of environmental regulation on clean energy consumption and CO emissions is asymmetric. A positive change in environmental regulation has a positive effect on clean energy consumption but a negative impact on CO emissions in the long run. While a negative change in environmental regulation has insignificant effects on clean energy consumption and CO emissions in the long run. The study suggests that China should need to revisit environmental regulation policies that could help in improving environmental quality.