Nexus between renewable energy consumption,economic growth,and CO2 emissions in Algeria: New evidence from the Fourier-Bootstrap ARDL approach

Governments often impose new energy strategies to support new CO₂ emission-reducing technologies without affecting economic growth. Hence, this study aims to re-investigate the relationship between economic growth, renewable energy use, and CO₂ emissions in Algeria from 1990 to 2018. Motivated by the mixed findings of the existing literature, which ignore the Fourier function and bootstrap test and apply the newly developed Fourier bootstrap autoregressive distributed lag model (FARDL). Our findings indicate that renewable energy use and growth have a long-run relationship with CO₂ emissions and do not accept the existence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis for CO₂ emissions in Algeria. In the long term, the results show that renewable energy use has a negative and significant impact, and growth has a positive and statistically significant effect on CO₂ emissions. In the short run, the findings indicate that renewable energy use reduces CO₂ emissions, while both the growth and squared growth had positive and statistically insignificant impacts on CO₂ emissions, confirming the lack of evidence supporting the EKC hypothesis. Moreover, the causality test indicates a one-way causation from growth to renewable energy use, confirming the conservation hypothesis for Algeria and from growth to CO₂ emissions. Interestingly, we found one-way causality from CO₂ emissions to renewable energy use, attributing this to the fact that renewable energy usage has yet to reach a point that it can significantly cause a CO₂ emissions reduction. Based on the results, we recommend that policymakers design appropriate policies to decarbonize energy consumption, e.g., increasing fossil fuel costs and implementing a carbon tax. In contrast, Algeria should promote new CO₂ emission-reducing technologies without affecting economic growth, e.g., tax exemptions and reductions for enterprise owners in the renewable energy industry.     

Disaggregated energy consumption,environment, and economic growth nexus of emerging South and East Asian Countries: An ARDL approach

This study examines the nexus between disaggregated energy consumption (EC), CO₂ emissions, and economic growth in emerging South and East Asian countries over the period of 1994 to 2019. The long-run equilibrium relationship is determined by using the “Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model” and the “Generalized least square (GLS) technique.” The panel causality test developed by “Dumitrescu and Hurlin, 2012” determines the direction of causation between variables. Disaggregated EC and CO₂ emissions positively affect economic growth in the research. The PMG estimate also validates the GLS findings, which produce the same results as the PMG estimation. To check the robustness, we also use FMOLS and DOLS estimators. The results confirm the feedback hypothesis for South and East Asian nations regarding energy uses, CO₂ emissions, and economic growth. In contrast, there is unidirectional causality between industrial development and economic growth. These findings will help governments in South and East Asia craft effective energy policy regulations for their financial institutions.     

对外经济贸易对中国碳排放的影响:基于省级面板数据的实证分析

改革开放以来,我国的对外经济贸易有了显著的发展,外商直接投资和进出口的快速增长有效地推动了经济的快速发展。然而在经济发展的同时,我国碳排放水平日益提高,已成为全球最大排放国。为了更好地管控碳排放,研究外商直接投资(FDI),对外贸易与碳排放的关系具有重要意义。本文通过对我国1995—2011年29个省(市、自治区)的FDI、对外贸易对碳排放的动态效应分析发现,FDI与进出口水平的提升均有利于降低我国碳排放的水平,“污染天堂”假说在我国并未得到证实。同时,本文验证了“环境库兹涅茨曲线”在我国的存在,证实了我国的碳排放水平与人均GDP存在倒“U”型关系。     

Impact of Human Activities on Carbon Dioxide (CO<Subscript>2</Subscript>) Emissions: A Statistical Analysis

Summary The balance of evidence suggests a perceptible human influence on global ecosystems. Human activities are affecting the global ecosystem, some directly and some indirectly. If researchers could clarify the extent to which specific human activities affect global ecosystems, they would be in a much better position to suggest strategies for mitigating against the worst disturbances. Sophisticated statistical analysis can help in interpreting the influence of specific human activities on global ecosystems more carefully. This study aims at identifying significant or influential human activities (i.e. factors) on CO₂ emissions using statistical analyses. The study was conducted for two cases: (i) developed countries and (ii) developing countries. In developed countries, this study identified three influential human activities for CO₂ emissions: (i) combustion of fossil fuels, (ii) population pressure on natural and terrestrial ecosystems, and (iii) land use change. In developing countries, the significant human activities causing an upsurge of CO₂ emissions are: (i) combustion of fossil fuels, (ii) terrestrial ecosystem strength and (iii) land use change. Among these factors, combustion of fossil fuels is the most influential human activity for CO₂ emissions both in developed and developing countries. Regression analysis based on the factor scores indicated that combustion of fossil fuels has significant positive influence on CO₂ emissions in both developed and developing countries. Terrestrial ecosystem strength has a significant negative influence on CO₂ emissions. Land use change and CO₂ emissions are positively related, although regression analysis showed that the influence of land use change on CO₂ emissions was still insignificant. It is anticipated, from the findings of this study, that CO₂ emissions can be reduced by reducing fossil-fuel consumption and switching to alternative energy sources, preserving exiting forests, planting trees on abandoned and degraded forest lands, or by planting trees by social/agroforestry on agricultural lands.     

A model for the CO2 capture potential

Global warming is a result of increasing anthropogenic CO₂ emissions, and the consequences will be dramatic climate changes if no action is taken. One of the main global challenges in the years to come is therefore to reduce the CO₂ emissions.Increasing energy efficiency and a transition to renewable energy as the major energy source can reduce CO₂ emissions, but such measures can only lead to significant emission reductions in the long-term. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a promising technological option for reducing CO₂ emissions on a shorter time scale.A model to calculate the CO₂ capture potential has been developed, and it is estimated that 25 billion tonnes CO₂ can be captured and stored within the EU by 2050. Globally, 236 billion tonnes CO₂ can be captured and stored by 2050. The calculations indicate that wide implementation of CCS can reduce CO₂ emissions by 54% in the EU and 33% globally in 2050 compared to emission levels today.Such a reduction in emissions is not sufficient to stabilize the climate. Therefore, the strategy to achieve the necessary CO₂ emissions reductions must be a combination of (1) increasing energy efficiency, (2) switching from fossil fuel to renewable energy sources, and (3) wide implementation of CCS.     

The Climate Value of Cycling

The reduction of CO₂ emissions constitutes one of the largest challenges of the current era. Sustainable transportation, and especially cycling, can contribute to the mitigation of CO₂ emissions since cycling possesses an intrinsic zero‐emission value. Few studies have been conducted that appraise the CO₂ reduction potential of cycling. Opportunity costs enable the estimation of avoided CO₂ emissions resulting from bicycle trips. The methodology developed in this research allows the attribution of a climate value to cycling by substituting bicycle trips with their most likely alternative transportation modes and calculating the resulting additional CO₂ emissions. The methodology uses data on the current modal shares of cycling mobility, the competition of cycling with other transportation modes, and CO₂ emission factors to calculate the climate value of cycling. When it is assumed that the avoided CO₂ emissions of cycling mobility could be traded on financial carbon markets, the climate value of cycling represents a monetary value. Application of the methodology to the case of Bogotá, Colombia — a city with a current bicycle modal share of 3.3% on a total of 10 million daily trips — results in a climate value of cycling of 55,115 tons of CO₂ per year, corresponding to an economic value of between 1 and 7 million US dollars when traded on the carbon market.     

Causal interactions between environmental degradation,renewable energy,nuclear energy and real GDP: a dynamic panel data approach

Renewable energy as well as nuclear energy are low carbon power that presents the life cycle emissions of greenhouse gases than fossil fuel energy. However, analyzing the relationship between the consumption of renewable energy, consumption of nuclear energy, CO₂ emissions and economic growth is crucial for the economic and energy policy decision; we address this question for developed countries. This paper deals with the relationships between nuclear energy, environmental degradation, real GDP and renewable energy. We apply a panel data model for a global panel consisting of nine developed countries during the period 1990–2013. The group studied consists of Canada, France, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the USA. The empirical findings suggest that: (1) a causal link between emissions and real income, (2) a unidirectional causality running from renewable energy to nuclear energy, (3) a unidirectional causal relationship running from capital to environmental degradation, (4) a unidirectional causal relationship running from income to nuclear energy consumption, since the growth hypothesis is valid, (5) a unidirectional causality running from capital to income, (6) no an outstanding role of renewable energy use in the contribution of CO₂ emissions.     

Toward sustainable use of natural resources: Nexus between resource rents,affluence, energy intensity and carbon emissions in developing and transition economies

Sustainable use of natural resources would entail ensuring that derived economic benefits today do not undermine the welfare of generations to come. On this basis, this study examines the nexus between natural resource rents and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions disaggregated into production and consumption-based (i.e., trade-adjusted) CO₂ emissions for a selected panel of 45 developing and transition economies over the period 1995–2017. The empirical model also incorporates the impacts of population, affluence, and energy intensity. The results show that affluence increases production-based CO₂ emissions by 1.407%, with the EKC's predicted inverted U-shaped curve only explaining consumption-based CO₂ emissions. Economic reliance on natural resource rents and energy intensification contribute 0.022% and 0.766%, respectively, to CO₂ emissions embedded in territorial production inventories and 0.035% and 0.583%, respectively, to CO₂ emissions embedded in consumption inventories. The bootstrap non-causality test shows that historical data on each variable has significant predictive power for future CO₂ emissions from both sources. The historical information about natural resource rents has significant predictive power over the future levels of affluence and energy intensity. Clearly, the results show that the environmental impact of natural resource rents is stronger when CO₂ emissions are adjusted for trade and varies among the countries, with Bangladesh, Guinea, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe among the most affected countries. Overall, this study provides motivation for policies to keep the use of natural resources within sustainable limits.     

Panel heterogeneous distribution analysis of trade and modernized agriculture on CO2 emissions: The role of renewable and fossil fuel energy consumption

In line with the global target of reducing climate change and its impact, this study explored the causal relationship between CO₂ emissions, modernized agriculture, trade openness, aggregate and disaggregate energy consumption in 14 African countries from 1990–2013 using a panel quantile estimation procedure. The empirical results showed that value addition to agricultural commodities declines CO₂ emissions in countries with high pollution levels. The study revealed a positive nexus between CO₂ emissions and energy consumption homogeneously distributed across quantiles. Trade openness was found to lower CO₂ emissions in countries with lower and higher levels of environmental pollution. While fossil fuel energy consumption was found to exacerbate CO₂ emissions, renewable energy consumption confirmed its mitigating effect on environmental pollution. The institution of climate‐smart agricultural options will sustainably increase productivity and income while adapting to climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Diversification of energy technologies with clean and modern energy sources like renewables avoid the over‐dependence on fossil fuels for agricultural purposes. Trade policies can stimulate flows of technology and investment opportunities for specialization in production and economies of scale. Hence, the consideration of policies that boost agricultural sector productivity and create an efficient market for international trade in Africa will help in improving livelihoods.     

浙江省环境污染与经济发展关系的实证研究

本文在环境库兹涅茨曲线假设基础上,采用1991—2014年浙江省环境和经济数据,运用回归模型对其环境污染与经济发展的关系进行实证检验。结果表明:浙江工业废水、工业废气、工业SO2排放量和工业固体废弃物产生量均符合EKC假设,其中工业SO2和工业废水人均排放量与人均GDP呈倒U形关系,拐点分别出现在2005年与2010年;工业废气排放量和工业固体废弃物产生量尚处于倒U形左侧上升阶段,其中工业固体废弃物人均产生量已接近拐点。而生活污水排放量与EKC假设并不相符,人均生活污水排放量与人均GDP呈单调递增的线形关系。对EKC驱动因子的分析表明,加强政府环境治理,以不断完善的环境法规推动产业结构升级调整,以持续的技术进步与创新促进关键行业节能减排,有利于克服规模效应,推动浙江环境污染与经济发展的关系早日实现解耦。     

Carbon flows and carbon use in the German anthroposphere: An inventory

Today, global climate change is one of the most urgent environmental problems. The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (CO₂) has to be stabilised by significant reductions of CO₂ emissions in the next decades to keep the expected temperature rise within tolerable borders. Efforts exceeding the implemented measures to reduce CO₂ emissions in Germany are desirable. An important pre-condition for such measures is a scientific-based inventory of the sources, sinks, and use of carbon.In this paper, we present CarboMoG, i.e. Carbon Flow Model of Germany. CarboMoG is a carbon flow model covering carbon flows, carbon sources and sinks in Germany and the German anthroposphere, showing concurrent energy and non-energy use of carbon sources.The model consists of seven modules in German anthroposphere following the German classification of economic sectors. Carbon flows to and from atmosphere and lithosphere as well as imports and exports were included into the model. The model comprises roughly 220 material flows determined based on material flow procedures for the base year 2000.Main sources of carbon are fossil energy carriers from lithosphere and uptake of CO₂ by crops (52% resp. 48% of all carbon sources). The model calculations show that import of energy carriers dominates total carbon import to Germany (82%). Total non-energy use of carbon in Germany is significantly higher than energy use (386 Mt C and 230 Mt C, resp.). Carbon throughput of Industry is greatest (about 224 Mt C input), followed by Energy (about 129 Mt C input). Agriculture and Forestry & Industry show the highest figure for non-energy use of carbon, energy use of carbon is largest in the Energy sector. Emissions of CO₂ to atmosphere account for 94% of all carbon flows to sinks in Germany. Carbon accumulates in German anthroposphere 5 Mt C in 2000.     

Environmental policy stringency,renewable energy consumption and CO2 emissions: Panel cointegration analysis for BRIICTS countries

ABSTRACT

The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between environmental policy stringency and CO₂ emissions in BRIICTS (Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia, China, Turkey and South Africa) for the period 1993–2014 after controlling for renewable energy, fossil energy, oil prices and income. We believe that this is the first attempt to use the recently OECD-developed environmental policy stringency index to test the effectiveness of environmental stringency policy in reducing CO₂ emission in these countries. Applying the Panel Pooled Mean Group Autoregressive Distributive Lag (PMG-ARDL) estimator, we found an inverted U–shaped relationship between environmental policy stringency and CO₂ emissions. This suggests that initially strict stringent environmental policy does not lead to improvements in the environment but after a certain level or a threshold point, environmental stringency policy leads to improvement in environmental quality. Renewable energy consumption was negatively related to CO₂ emissions while fossil energy consumption and real oil prices and income were positively and significantly related to CO₂. Our findings suggest that strengthening the stringency of environmental policies and promoting renewable energy are effective ways of preventing environmental degradation in BRIICTS countries.     

CO2 emissions from Polish cement industry

The cement industry is one of the most significant sources of anthropogenic emissions of CO₂. It is connected with the specific character of the production processes, during which great quantities of CO₂ are produced. Basic actions to reduce CO₂ emissions recommended by the European Union's, Reference Document on Best Available Techniques in the Cement and Lime Manufacturing Industries, include: reduction of fuel consumption, selection of raw materials with low content of organic compounds and fuels with low coal contribution to heating value. All actions connected with the improvement of energy conversion efficiency of the cement production process cause CO₂ emissions reduction. The use of at most acceptable by the valid standards amounts of waste as raw materials and additives for cement production, also brings about the reduction of significant part of CO₂ emissions. These measures have been and continue to be pursued by the cement factories in Poland. This article describes the evolution of the cement industry in Poland over the period 1998–2008 and the resulting changes in CO₂ emissions and explores the drivers for these changes. The sources of CO₂ emissions in cement industry have been presented in this article as well as a discussion of potential ways to reduce Polish cement industry emissions even further.     

Global energy and emissions scenarios for effective climate change mitigation—Deterministic and stochastic scenarios with the TIAM model

The achievement possibilities of the EU 2 °C climate target have been assessed with the ETSAP TIAM global energy systems model. Cost-effective global and regional mitigation scenarios of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and F-gases were calculated with alternative assumptions on emissions trading. In the mitigation scenarios, an 85% reduction in CO₂ emissions is needed from the baseline, and very significant changes in the energy system towards emission-free sources take place during this century. The largest new technology groups are carbon-capture and storage (CCS), nuclear power, wind power, advanced bioenergy technologies and energy efficiency measures. CCS technologies contributed a 5.5-Pg CO₂ annual emission reduction by 2050 and 12 Pg CO₂ reduction by 2100. Also large-scale forestation measures were found cost-efficient. Forestation measures reached their maximum impact of 7.7 Pg CO₂ annual emission reduction in 2080. The effects of uncertainties in the climate sensitivity have been analysed with stochastic scenarios.     

Electric Swing Adsorption for CO2 removal from flue gases

One of the most important sources of CO₂ emissions are the fossil-fuel fired plants for production of electricity. Removal of CO₂ from flue gas streams for further sequestration has been proposed by the International Panel on Climate Change experts as one of the most reliable solutions to mitigate anthropogenic greenhouse emissions. When natural gas is employed as fuel, the molar fraction of CO₂ in the flue gas is lower than 5% causing serious problems for capture. The purpose of this work is to present experimental validation of an Electric Swing Adsorption (ESA) technology that may be employed for carbon capture for low molar fractions of CO₂ in the flue gas streams. To improve energy utilization, an activated carbon honeycomb monolith with low electrical resistivity was employed as selective adsorbent. A mathematical model for this honeycomb is proposed as well as different ESA cycles for CO₂ capture.     

Bottom-up approach for downscaling CO2 emissions in Taiwan: robustness analysis and policy implications

The roles and responsibilities of cities in CO₂ mitigation have drawn increasing attention in recent years. To facilitate optimal design of effective mitigation policies, it is important for city authorities to understand the magnitudes and sources of their CO₂ emissions, and their relative shares of emissions at a higher spatial level. Although several studies estimate CO₂ emissions at the city level, the robustness of these estimates and their linkage to emissions at a higher level remains unclear. This kind of localized information on emissions is important for coordination of climate policies at different spatial scales. The study aims to fill a gap in understanding by building a systematic bottom-up approach for estimating urban CO₂ emissions and offering a consistency check with IPCC top–down estimates. Using Taiwan as a case study, we display the geographic distribution of CO₂ emissions. The significance and implications of the downscaling CO₂ emissions are indicated accordingly.     

Legal and regulatory challenges in the implementation of CO2 geological storage: An Alberta and Canadian perspective

Alberta is the province with the largest CO₂ emissions in Canada, with approximately two-thirds of emissions originating from large stationary sources. Due to the fortuitous association of large CO₂ sources with the storage capacity offered by the underlying Alberta basin, it is expected that large-scale CO₂ geological storage in Canada will occur in Alberta first, and both levels of governments are contemplating measures to facilitate implementation. A review of the current provincial and federal legislation and regulations presented in this paper indicates that the existing legal and regulatory regime is reasonably sufficient, with some modifications, to accommodate the active injection phase of CO₂ capture and storage (CCS) operations, and the early takers of this new technology. However, governments in Alberta and Canada, and likely everywhere, need to address several pressing issues dealing mainly with the CCS post-operational phase. These issues, reviewed in this paper from an Alberta and Canadian perspective, fall into several categories: jurisdictional, property (ownership), regulatory and liability. Because Alberta is a landlocked province, matters relating to CO₂ storage under the seabed will not be addressed here except when discussing matters of jurisdiction and CO₂ classification. Possible models for post-injection liability transfer to the state are also presented. Although this review is focused on western Canada conditions, the issues are broad enough to be of interest in other jurisdictions, which may also adopt parts of the legal and regulatory framework that is quite well developed in Alberta.     

Electricity systems with near-zero emissions of CO2 based on wind energy and coal gasification with CCS and hydrogen storage

Emissions from electricity generation will have to be reduced to near-zero to meet targets for reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions. Variable renewable energy sources such as wind will help to achieve this goal but they will have to be used in conjunction with other flexible power plants with low-CO₂ emissions. A process which would be well suited to this role would be coal gasification hydrogen production with CCS, underground buffer storage of hydrogen and independent gas turbine power generation. The gasification hydrogen production and CO₂ capture and storage equipment could operate at full load and only the power plants would need to operate flexibly and at low load, which would result in substantial practical and economic advantages. This paper analyses the performances and costs of such plants in scenarios with various amounts of wind generation, based on data for power demand and wind energy variability in the UK. In a scenario with 35% wind generation, overall emissions of CO₂ could be reduced by 98–99%. The cost of abating CO₂ emissions from the non-wind residual generation using the technique proposed in this paper would be less than 40% of the cost of using coal-fired power plants with integrated CCS.     

A multi-period optimization model for energy planning with CO2 emission consideration

A novel deterministic multi-period mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model for the power generation planning of electric systems is described and evaluated in this paper. The model is developed with the objective of determining the optimal mix of energy supply sources and pollutant mitigation options that meet a specified electricity demand and CO₂ emission targets at minimum cost. Several time-dependent parameters are included in the model formulation; they include forecasted energy demand, fuel price variability, construction lead time, conservation initiatives, and increase in fixed operational and maintenance costs over time. The developed model is applied to two case studies. The objective of the case studies is to examine the economical, structural, and environmental effects that would result if the electricity sector was required to reduce its CO₂ emissions to a specified limit.     

Integration of CO2 capture unit using single- and blended-amines into supercritical coal-fired power plants: Implications for emission and energy management

This work provides the essential information and approaches for integration of carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture units into power plants, particularly the supercritical type, so that energy utilization and CO₂ emissions can be well managed in the subject power plants. An in-house model, developed at the University of Regina, Canada, was successfully used for simulating a 500 MW supercritical coal-fired power plant with a post-combustion CO₂ capture unit. The simulations enabled sensitivity and parametric study of the net efficiency of the power plant, the coal consumption rate, and the amounts of CO₂ captured and avoided. The parameters of interest include CO₂ capture efficiency, type of coal, flue gas delivery scheme, type of amine used in the capture unit, and steam pressure supplied to the capture unit for solvent regeneration. The results show that the advancement of MEA-based CO₂ capture units through uses of blended monoethanolamine–methyldiethanolamine (MEA–MDEA) and split flow configuration can potentially make the integration of power plant and CO₂ capture unit less energy intensive. Despite the increase in energy penalty, it may be worth capturing CO₂ at a higher efficiency to achieve greater CO₂ emissions avoided. The flue gas delivery scheme and the steam pressure drawn from the power plant to the CO₂ capture unit should be considered for process integration.