Renewable and Non-renewable Energy, Economic Growth and Natural Resources Impact on Environmental Quality: Empirical Evidence from South and Southeast Asian Countries with CS-ARDL Modeling

This study aims to estimate the effects of economic growth, renewable and non-renewable energy consumption (EC) and natural resources on carbon emissions for the period of 1990-2014, in 11 countries, using 3 panels: (i) Full countries panel, (ii) South Asian countries and (iii) Southeast Asian countries. For all panels, the long-run elasticities were estimated. The results suggest that non-renewable and renewable EC increase economic development in the three panels. Besides, natural resources impede the economic growth in South Asian and full countries panels while natural resources increase the economic activities in Southeast Asian countries. Non-renewable and economic growth increase CO2 emissions, whereas, renewable EC lessens the carbon emissions. Natural resources also contributed to CO2 emissions in the case of South Asian and full countries panels while improved the environmental quality in the Southeast Asian region. It was also observed that there is cointegration among the variables in all three panels. Policy recommendations can be made, in the sense that renewable energy sources should be preferred to decrease CO2 emissions, and education and corruption should be improved to estimulate the economic growth in the studied areas.