IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/engenv/v36y2025i2p807-828.html

Does renewable energy consumption improve carbon efficiency? Evidence from 116 countries

Author

Listed:
  • Qiang Wang
  • Chen Zhang
  • Rongrong Li

Abstract

A more comprehensive understanding of the impact of renewable energy on carbon efficiency could serve to achieve the win-win goal of carbon reduction and economic growth. This paper develops a data envelopment analysis model to measure carbon efficiency, analyses the non-linear, mediating and heterogeneous effects of renewable energy on carbon efficiency using panel data for 116 countries over the period 2005 to 2020. The results show that: (i) there is a certain difference in carbon efficiency among countries in different income groups. Specifically, the carbon efficiency of low-income and low-middle-income countries is generally in a low-efficiency state. (ii) There is an intermediary effect between renewable energy and carbon efficiency, which means that carbon efficiency can be indirectly improved by promoting technological innovation. (3) With the increase of income level, the positive effect of renewable energy on carbon efficiency is more effective. Finally, targeted policy recommendations are proposed.

Suggested Citation

  • Qiang Wang & Chen Zhang & Rongrong Li, 2025. "Does renewable energy consumption improve carbon efficiency? Evidence from 116 countries," Energy & Environment, , vol. 36(2), pages 807-828, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:engenv:v:36:y:2025:i:2:p:807-828
    DOI: 10.1177/0958305X231180692
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0958305X231180692
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0958305X231180692?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Steinbuks, Jevgenijs & Narayanan, Badri G., 2015. "Fossil fuel producing economies have greater potential for industrial interfuel substitution," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 168-177.
    2. R. D. Banker & A. Charnes & W. W. Cooper, 1984. "Some Models for Estimating Technical and Scale Inefficiencies in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(9), pages 1078-1092, September.
    3. He, Yong & Liao, Nuo & Lin, Kunrong, 2021. "Can China's industrial sector achieve energy conservation and emission reduction goals dominated by energy efficiency enhancement? A multi-objective optimization approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    4. Miao, Zhuang & Chen, Xiaodong & Baležentis, Tomas, 2021. "Improving energy use and mitigating pollutant emissions across “Three Regions and Ten Urban Agglomerations”: A city-level productivity growth decomposition," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    5. Da Gao & Ge Li & Yi Li, 2022. "Government cooperation, market integration, and energy efficiency in urban agglomerations—Based on the quasi-natural experiment of the Yangtze River Delta Urban Economic Coordination Committee," Energy & Environment, , vol. 33(8), pages 1679-1694, December.
    6. Sebri, Maamar & Ben-Salha, Ousama, 2014. "On the causal dynamics between economic growth, renewable energy consumption, CO2 emissions and trade openness: Fresh evidence from BRICS countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 14-23.
    7. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Balsalobre-Lorente, Daniel & Sinha, Avik, 2019. "Foreign Direct Investment–CO2 Emissions Nexus in Middle East and North African countries: Importance of Biomass Energy Consumption," MPRA Paper 91729, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 19 Jan 2019.
    8. Qi, Tianyu & Zhang, Xiliang & Karplus, Valerie J., 2014. "The energy and CO2 emissions impact of renewable energy development in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 60-69.
    9. Jones, Clifton T., 2014. "The role of biomass in US industrial interfuel substitution," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 122-126.
    10. Kao, Chihwa, 1999. "Spurious regression and residual-based tests for cointegration in panel data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 1-44, May.
    11. Yang, Junwen & Chen, Bin, 2021. "Energy efficiency evaluation of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) based on data envelopment analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 289(C).
    12. Da Gao & Xinlin Mo & Ruochan Xiong & Zhiliang Huang, 2022. "Tax Policy and Total Factor Carbon Emission Efficiency: Evidence from China’s VAT Reform," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-17, July.
    13. Ji, Qiang & Zhang, Dayong, 2019. "How much does financial development contribute to renewable energy growth and upgrading of energy structure in China?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 114-124.
    14. Peter Pedroni, 2001. "Purchasing Power Parity Tests In Cointegrated Panels," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 83(4), pages 727-731, November.
    15. Chen, Chaoyi & Pinar, Mehmet & Stengos, Thanasis, 2020. "Renewable energy consumption and economic growth nexus: Evidence from a threshold model," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    16. Bhattacharya, Mita & Paramati, Sudharshan Reddy & Ozturk, Ilhan & Bhattacharya, Sankar, 2016. "The effect of renewable energy consumption on economic growth: Evidence from top 38 countries," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 733-741.
    17. Vakulchuk, Roman & Overland, Indra & Scholten, Daniel, 2020. "Renewable energy and geopolitics: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    18. G. S. Maddala & Shaowen Wu, 1999. "A Comparative Study of Unit Root Tests with Panel Data and a New Simple Test," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 61(S1), pages 631-652, November.
    19. Pittman, Russell W, 1983. "Multilateral Productivity Comparisons with Undesirable Outputs," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 93(372), pages 883-891, December.
    20. M. Hashem Pesaran & Badi H. Baltagi, 2007. "Heterogeneity and cross section dependence in panel data models: theory and applications introduction," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(2), pages 229-232.
    21. Peng Li & Yaofu Ouyang & Lina Zhang, 2020. "The nonlinear impact of renewable energy on CO2 emissions: empirical evidence across regions in China," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(14), pages 1150-1155, July.
    22. Yurtkuran, Suleyman, 2021. "The effect of agriculture, renewable energy production, and globalization on CO2 emissions in Turkey: A bootstrap ARDL approach," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 1236-1245.
    23. Sheng, Pengfei & Li, Jun & Zhai, Mengxin & Huang, Shoujun, 2020. "Coupling of economic growth and reduction in carbon emissions at the efficiency level: Evidence from China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    24. Zhishuang Zhu & Hua Liao, 2019. "Do subsidies improve the financial performance of renewable energy companies? Evidence from China," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 95(1), pages 241-256, January.
    25. Fan, Weiyang & Hao, Yu, 2020. "An empirical research on the relationship amongst renewable energy consumption, economic growth and foreign direct investment in China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 598-609.
    26. Yang Liu & Ruochan Xiong & Shigong Lv & Da Gao, 2022. "The Impact of Digital Finance on Green Total Factor Energy Efficiency: Evidence at China’s City Level," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-17, July.
    27. Nick Johnstone & Ivan Haščič & David Popp, 2017. "Erratum to: Renewable Energy Policies and Technological Innovation: Evidence Based on Patent Counts," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 68(2), pages 441-444, October.
    28. Zhang, Xi & Geng, Yong & Shao, Shuai & Wilson, Jeffrey & Song, Xiaoqian & You, Wei, 2020. "China’s non-fossil energy development and its 2030 CO2 reduction targets: The role of urbanization," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 261(C).
    29. Wesseh, Presley K. & Lin, Boqiang, 2018. "Energy consumption, fuel substitution, technical change, and economic growth: Implications for CO2 mitigation in Egypt," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 340-347.
    30. Hao Chen & Ling He & Jiachuan Chen & Bo Yuan & Teng Huang & Qi Cui, 2019. "Impacts of Clean Energy Substitution for Polluting Fossil-Fuels in Terminal Energy Consumption on the Economy and Environment in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-29, November.
    31. Xu, Le & Fan, Meiting & Yang, Lili & Shao, Shuai, 2021. "Heterogeneous green innovations and carbon emission performance: Evidence at China's city level," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    32. Levin, Andrew & Lin, Chien-Fu & James Chu, Chia-Shang, 2002. "Unit root tests in panel data: asymptotic and finite-sample properties," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 108(1), pages 1-24, May.
    33. Bello, Mufutau Opeyemi & Solarin, Sakiru Adebola & Yen, Yuen Yee, 2018. "Hydropower and potential for interfuel substitution: The case of electricity sector in Malaysia," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 966-983.
    34. repec:bla:obuest:v:61:y:1999:i:0:p:631-52 is not listed on IDEAS
    35. Suh, Dong Hee, 2016. "Interfuel substitution and biomass use in the U.S. industrial sector: A differential approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 24-30.
    36. Apergis, Nicholas & Payne, James E. & Menyah, Kojo & Wolde-Rufael, Yemane, 2010. "On the causal dynamics between emissions, nuclear energy, renewable energy, and economic growth," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(11), pages 2255-2260, September.
    37. Omri, Anis & Nguyen, Duc Khuong, 2014. "On the determinants of renewable energy consumption: International evidence," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 554-560.
    38. Shu Zhang & Wenying Chen, 2022. "Assessing the energy transition in China towards carbon neutrality with a probabilistic framework," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-15, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wang, Kai-Hua & Jiang, Xin-Yu & Tang, Yun, 2025. "Artificial intelligence, cloud computing, blockchain, and the energy market in the era of energy transition," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    2. Wang, Shaohua & Xu, Jinglei & Cheng, Mengrui & Zhang, Wei, 2025. "Measurement and influencing factors of China’s energy transition level from the perspective of the low-carbon and resilience two-dimensional game," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 338(C).
    3. Zhao, Xin & Zhai, Guoqing & Nasim, Asma & Ma, Xiaowei, 2025. "Geopolitical risks, trade openness, and energy security: Empirical evidence from 41 countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ibrahiem, Dalia M. & Hanafy, Shaimaa A., 2021. "Do energy security and environmental quality contribute to renewable energy? The role of trade openness and energy use in North African countries," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 667-678.
    2. Wang, Qiang & Zhang, Fuyu, 2021. "Free trade and renewable energy: A cross-income levels empirical investigation using two trade openness measures," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 1027-1039.
    3. Mesfin Welderufael Berhe & Toyo Amègnonna Marcel Dossou & Junbing Huang & Abel Dula Wedajo, 2025. "Can China's trade and investment facilitate renewable energy consumption in Africa?," Energy & Environment, , vol. 36(7), pages 3244-3267, November.
    4. Mehmet Balcilar & Ojonugwa Usman & George N. Ike, 2023. "Investing green for sustainable development without ditching economic growth," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(2), pages 728-743, April.
    5. Liu, Xuyi & Zhang, Shun & Bae, Junghan, 2017. "The nexus of renewable energy-agriculture-environment in BRICS," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 489-496.
    6. Nguyen, Kim Hanh & Kakinaka, Makoto, 2019. "Renewable energy consumption, carbon emissions, and development stages: Some evidence from panel cointegration analysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 1049-1057.
    7. Paramati, Sudharshan Reddy & Sinha, Avik & Dogan, Eyup, 2017. "The significance of renewable energy use for economic output and environmental protection: Evidence from the next 11 developing economies," MPRA Paper 100087, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Marius-Corneliu Marinaș & Marin Dinu & Aura-Gabriela Socol & Cristian Socol, 2018. "Renewable energy consumption and economic growth. Causality relationship in Central and Eastern European countries," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(10), pages 1-29, October.
    9. Chen, Chaoyi & Pinar, Mehmet & Stengos, Thanasis, 2021. "Determinants of renewable energy consumption: Importance of democratic institutions," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 75-83.
    10. Acikgoz, Senay & Ben Ali, Mohamed Sami, 2019. "Where does economic growth in the Middle Eastern and North African countries come from?," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 172-183.
    11. Mohd Afjal & Chinnadurai Kathiravan & Leo Paul Dana & Chitra Devi Nagarajan, 2023. "The Dynamic Impact of Financial Technology and Energy Consumption on Environmental Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-21, June.
    12. Emrah KOÇAK & Nısfet UZAY, 2018. "Democracy, Economic Freedoms and Economic Growth: An Investigation on the Role of Institutions," Sosyoekonomi Journal, Sosyoekonomi Society, issue 26(36).
    13. Agyeman, Stephen Duah & Lin, Boqiang, 2022. "Nonrenewable and renewable energy substitution, and low–carbon energy transition: Evidence from North African countries," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 378-395.
    14. Zhang, Shun & Liu, Xuyi, 2019. "The roles of international tourism and renewable energy in environment: New evidence from Asian countries," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 385-394.
    15. Kahia, Montassar & Ben Aissa, Mohamed Safouane, 2014. "Renewable and non-renewable energy consumption and economic growth: Evidence from MENA Net Oil Importing Countries," MPRA Paper 80780, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Narasingha Das & Md. Emran Hossain & Pinki Bera & Partha Gangopadhyay & Javier Cifuentes-Faura & Ranjan Aneja & Mustafa Kamal, 2025. "Decarbonization through sustainable energy technologies: Asymmetric evidence from 20 most innovative nations across the globe," Energy & Environment, , vol. 36(1), pages 374-390, February.
    17. Nyiko Worship Hlongwane & Hlalefang Khobai, 2025. "The Impact of the Renewable Energy Transition on Economic Growth in BRICS Nations," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-28, August.
    18. Hu, Hui & Xie, Nan & Fang, Debin & Zhang, Xiaoling, 2018. "The role of renewable energy consumption and commercial services trade in carbon dioxide reduction: Evidence from 25 developing countries," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 1229-1244.
    19. Mufutau Opeyemi, Bello, 2021. "Path to sustainable energy consumption: The possibility of substituting renewable energy for non-renewable energy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    20. Qamruzzaman, Md & Jianguo, Wei, 2020. "The asymmetric relationship between financial development, trade openness, foreign capital flows, and renewable energy consumption: Fresh evidence from panel NARDL investigation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 827-842.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:engenv:v:36:y:2025:i:2:p:807-828. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.