Are renewable energy policies upsetting carbon dioxide emissions? The case of Latin America countries

Abstract

The impact of renewable energy policies in carbon dioxide emissions was analysed for a panel of ten Latin American countries, for the period from 1991 to 2012. Panel autoregressive distributed lag methodology was used to decompose the total effect of renewable energy policies on carbon dioxide emissions in its short- and long-run components. There is evidence for the presence of cross-sectional dependence, confirming that Latin American countries share spatial patterns. Heteroskedasticity, contemporaneous correlation, and first-order autocorrelation cross-sectional dependence are also present. To cope with these phenomena, the robust dynamic Driscoll-Kraay estimator, with fixed effects, was used. It was confirmed that the primary energy consumption per capita, in both the short- and long-run, contributes to an increase in carbon dioxide emissions, and also that renewable energy policies in the long-run, and renewable electricity generation per capita both in the short- and long-run, help to mitigate per capita carbon dioxide emissions.

The Hydroelectricity Consumption and Economic Growth Nexus: A Long Time Span Analysis

“…Fuinhas, et al 2016, Hashem et al 2001). This methodology is the best choice, due to the capacity to decomposing the global effects in the shortand long-run in the analysis.…”

Do fiscal incentive policies impact the installed capacity of renewable energy? An empirical evidence from Latin American countries

“…The PMG estimator makes restrictions among cross-sections and adjustment speed term. This estimator in the existence of homogeneity in long-run, this estimator is more efficient than MG estimator (Fuinhas, et al 2017). …”

“…According to Fuinhas et al (2017) and Koengkan (2017a), the ARDL methodology has a capacity to decompose the total effect of variables into in the short-and long-run components. Moreover, the authors complement that this methodology is consistent with efficient estimations and parameter inferences based on the standard test.…”

“…The uses of per capita values let us control for disparities in population growth among the Latin American countries (Fuinhas et al 2017; Koengkan,2017), and thus the uses of local currency unit (LCU) reduces the influence of exchange rates. The uses of variable "GDP of China" is due to the economic growth of China has a positive impact on economic growth of Latin American countries and consequently in investments of renewable energy, as well as the China is an important drive in investments of this kind of sources.…”

“…Other countries adopted the same policies, such as Costa Rica in 1987 and Nicaragua in 1977 with geothermal laws (IRENA,2015;Fuinhas et al 2017). …”