Public budgets for energy RD&D and the effects on energy intensity and pollution levels

Abstract

This study, based on the N-shaped cubic model of the environmental Kuznets curve, analyzes the evolution of per capita greenhouse gas emissions (GHGpc) using not just economic growth but also public budgets dedicated to energy-oriented research development and demonstration (RD&D) and energy intensity. The empirical evidence, obtained from an econometric model of fixed effects for 28 OECD countries during 1994-2010, suggests that energy innovations help reduce GHGpc levels and mitigate the negative impact of energy intensity on environmental quality. When countries develop active energy RD&D policies, they can reduce both the rates of energy intensity and the level of GHGpc emissions. This paper incorporates a moderating variable to the econometric model that emphasizes the effect that GDP has on energy intensity. It also adds a variable that reflects the difference between countries that have made a greater economic effort in energy RD&D, which in turn corrects the GHG emissions resulting from the energy intensity of each country.

How economic growth, renewable electricity and natural resources contribute to CO2 emissions?

“…Therefore, adequate environmental regulation could effectively accelerate technology changes capable of reducing pollution (Torras and Boyce, 1998). Many studies have demonstrated that changes in the energy-mix pattern and the promotion of renewable energy sources have a direct impact on reducing CO2 emissions (Balsalobre et al, 2015).…”

“…In an N-shaped scheme, ENERG_INNOVit provides technical compensation for the scale effect ( Figure-3 (Torras and Boyce, 1998;Balsalobre et al, 2015). High-income countries that invest in energy innovation processes, use high-technology equipment, and operate in a more service-centred economy generate large differences in the trade preconditions of developed and developing countries.…”

Exploring the relationship between energy usage segregation and environmental degradation in N-11 countries

“…(2) and Eq. (3) that our study focuses on investigating whether the association between economic growth and carbon emissions is either an N-shaped or inverted N-shaped EKC (see Shafik and Bandyopadhyay, 1992;Grossman and Krueger, 1995;Torras and Boyce, 1998;Balsalobre et al, 2015;Sinha andBhattacharya, 2016, 2017; Álvarez-Herranz et al, 2017 a, b, and others) 5 . The N-shaped pattern allows us to focus on issues that are related to scale effect and the long-term effects of energy 4 Renewable energy consumption data does not include biomass energy consumption.…”

Economic development and multiple air pollutant emissions from the industrial sector

“…Following Lopez-Menendez et al (2014) and Balsalobre et al(2015), we categorize the patterns of the relationships using coefficient parameters , ,and estimated by equations (1) and (2). We summarize the patterns of the relationships in Table 3.…”