School of Finance and Economics, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Aug 27;19(17):10676. doi: 10.3390/ijerph191710676.
Carbon neutrality is a 21st-century priority area, with the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries making significant investments in renewable energy and climate mitigation initiatives to attain it. However, carbon neutrality research in the MENA region is under-developed, particularly when considering the roles of renewable energy, economic growth, and effectiveness of government. To address this gap, this research investigates the roles of renewable energy, economic growth, and government effectiveness toward the MENA region's carbon neutrality goal. We implemented heterogeneous and second-generation panel data techniques that are resilient to cross-sectional dependency and slope heterogeneity to panel data spanning 16 MENA countries from 1996 to 2018. We discovered that MENA data are cross-sectionally dependent, heterogeneous, and cointegrated. We found that government effectiveness and renewable energy bring carbon neutrality closer, but economic growth initially delays it. We detected Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) in the MENA region, specifically in the High-Income Countries. Although there were signs of EKC in the Middle-Income Countries, this was not significantly validated. Finally, we found a one-way causal link from government effectiveness and renewable energy to carbon neutrality but a feedback mechanism between economic growth and carbon neutrality in the MENA region. As a result of these findings, it is recommended that the MENA region's policymakers prioritize renewable energies and improve the effectiveness of government to drive economic growth toward the carbon neutrality goal.
碳中和是 21 世纪的优先事项，中东和北非（MENA）国家在可再生能源和气候缓解举措方面进行了大量投资，以实现这一目标。然而，MENA 地区的碳中和研究还不够发达，特别是在考虑可再生能源、经济增长和政府效率的作用时。为了解决这一差距，本研究探讨了可再生能源、经济增长和政府效率在实现 MENA 地区碳中和目标方面的作用。我们采用了异构和第二代面板数据技术，这些技术能够抵御横截面相关性和斜率异质性对跨越 1996 年至 2018 年的 16 个 MENA 国家的面板数据的影响。我们发现 MENA 数据存在横截面相关性、异质性和协整性。我们发现，政府效率和可再生能源使碳中和目标更加接近，但经济增长最初会推迟这一目标。我们在 MENA 地区发现了环境库兹涅茨曲线（EKC），特别是在高收入国家。尽管中收入国家存在 EKC 的迹象，但这并没有得到显著验证。最后，我们发现政府效率和可再生能源对碳中和有单向因果关系，但在 MENA 地区，经济增长和碳中和之间存在反馈机制。基于这些发现，建议 MENA 地区的政策制定者优先考虑可再生能源，并提高政府效率，以推动经济增长实现碳中和目标。
