Evaluating the impacts of education and digitalization on renewable energy demand behaviour: new evidence from Japan

Abstract

Increasing renewable energy consumption is considered the panacea to tackle the issue of global warming and energy security. The digitalization of society can provide smart solutions for energy and environmental-related issues. Similarly, education can bring environmental awareness and encourage individuals and firms to rely more on renewable energy sources. We have tried to investigate the impact of education and digitalization on the renewable energy demand in Japan by applying the Quantile ARDL model. In the short and long run, the estimates attached to education are significantly positive almost all quantiles, which confirms that the higher the level of education in Japan, the higher the renewable energy demand. Likewise, the estimated coefficients of ICT, in both the short and long run, are positive and significant, confirming that increased digitalization help facilitate the renewable energy demand in Japan. Moreover, when we observe the Wald test, the asymmetric impact of education and digitalization are confirmed on the renewable energy demand in the short and long run.