Moqadassi Zahra, Miremadi Iman, Khajehpour Hossein
Graduate School of Management and Economics, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.
Energy Engineering Department, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.
PLoS One. 2024 Dec 31;19(12):e0316020. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0316020. eCollection 2024.
One of the actions taken to mitigate the climate change is research, development and demonstration (RD&D) investments in renewable energy (RE) technology. In addition to domestic RD&D spending, the import of foreign technologies, as a main channel of technology transfer, is another option to obtain higher share of renewable energies in order to achieve climate objectives. In this study, a panel dataset of 28 OECD member countries from 2011 to 2020 is analyzed, using the OLS, fixed-effects, and two-step system GMM methods, to assess the impacts of public spending on renewable energy RD&D (RERD) and the import of renewable energy technologies on the energy-related CO2 emissions. To fully capture the significant regional differences, the 28 countries are re-divided into four regions in accordance with their renewable energy RD&D investment level and total CO2 emissions. This study uniquely investigates the impact of RERD and importation-as an alternative channel for obtaining renewable energy technologies-on energy-related CO2 emissions in OECD countries, while also analyzing regional differences to inform targeted local policies. The findings reveal that CO2 emission is significantly and negatively affected by renewable energy imports, for the full panel as well as for Low-RERD and Low-Emission regions. Furthermore, only in High-RERD and High-Emission regions can renewable energy RD&D decrease CO2 emissions. Accordingly, some policy implications are recommended concerning investments in renewable energy RD&D and renewables import.
为缓解气候变化所采取的行动之一是对可再生能源（RE）技术进行研究、开发和示范（RD&D）投资。除了国内的RD&D支出外，作为技术转让的主要渠道，进口外国技术是获取更高比例可再生能源以实现气候目标的另一种选择。在本研究中，分析了2011年至2020年28个经合组织成员国的面板数据集，采用普通最小二乘法（OLS）、固定效应模型和两步系统广义矩估计（GMM）方法，以评估公共支出对可再生能源RD&D（RERD）以及可再生能源技术进口对与能源相关的二氧化碳排放的影响。为了充分体现显著的地区差异，根据可再生能源RD&D投资水平和二氧化碳总排放量将这28个国家重新划分为四个区域。本研究独特地考察了RERD和进口（作为获取可再生能源技术的替代渠道）对经合组织国家与能源相关的二氧化碳排放的影响，同时还分析了地区差异，为有针对性的地方政策提供参考。研究结果表明，无论是对于整个面板数据集，还是对于低RERD和低排放地区，可再生能源进口都对二氧化碳排放有显著的负面影响。此外，只有在高RERD和高排放地区，可再生能源RD&D才能减少二氧化碳排放。据此，针对可再生能源RD&D投资和可再生能源进口提出了一些政策建议。
