Do renewable energy consumption and green innovation help to curb CO2 emissions? Evidence from E7 countries

Abstract

Global climate change is profoundly affecting human survival and development and is a major challenge facing the international community today. Therefore, this study aims to examine the effect of renewable energy consumption and green innovation on CO2 emission reduction in E7 countries within the framework of macroeconomic indicators, and whether they can contribute to achieving carbon neutrality targets. To achieve the purpose of the study, firstly, the fully modified OLS, dynamic OLS, classical cointegration regression, Bayer–Hanck cointegration, and ARDL bounds test are employed in this study. The existence of a long-term cointegration or long-term linkage is confirmed by empirical evidence. Secondly, the empirical outcomes of FMOLS, DOLS, and CCR reveal that a 1% increase in renewable energy consumption and financial innovation reduces the CO2 emissions by 0.357% (0.301%), 0.428% (0.336%), and 0.348% (0.306%), while a 1% rise in economic growth and inflation raises the CO2 emissions by 0.881% (0.015%), 0.946% (0.043%), and 0.875 (0.022%), respectively. Similarly, the results of ARDL demonstrate that renewable energy consumption and financial innovation contribute to the improvement of environmental quality, while economic growth and inflation exacerbate the deterioration of environmental quality. However, green innovation has no apparent impact on environmental sustainability. Finally, in the short term, the paths of renewable energy consumption and economic growth on environmental sustainability under macroeconomic conditions are almost identical to those in the long term, while green innovation significantly improves the environmental quality of economic development in E7 countries. To sum up, to achieve sustainable economic and environmental development in the context of carbon neutrality, policy makers in developing countries should fully consider the role of renewable energy and green innovation, and actively strive to promote green and low-carbon energy development, to make new contributions to global environmental governance.