Determinants of CO2 emissions in the ASEAN Economies: The Role of Renewable and Non-renewable Energy

Environmental protection is a concerning problem globally; several studies examined the factors that hurt the environment by examining the factors that boost the carbon emission level in recent decades. Selection of the data and econometric models is the highlighted issue in the current study because most studies used over energy consumption, and there is a problem of selection assessment techniques. Most of all, previous studies used general econometric models to measure the determinants of environmental degradation. So,this study fills the gap revealed in the past studies while using the essential indicators like trade openness, income, non-renewable and renewable energy on carbon emissions in the presence of EKC (Kuznets environmental curve) for the ASEAN economies from the time spam 2000 to 2018, by using panel ARDL, Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimation techniques. The results of the PMG estimator confirm the presence of the EKC hypothesis in selected ASEAN countries. Furthermore, Trade and renewable energy minimize carbon dioxide emissions, whereas non-renewable upsurges CO2 emissions. The outcomes also revealed cointegration amongst carbon emissions and renewable energy and one-way causation found from income to CO2 productions, non-renewable energy to carbon emissions,and trade openness toward carbon dioxide emissions. Moreover, it concluded that ASEAN states that the government should advise the industries and all sectors to modify their energy sources from non-renewable energy sources to renewable energy sources because it helps increase energy and economic growth in reducing carbon emissions level.