Renewable, CO_2 emissions, Trade Openness, and Economic growth in Iran

摘要

This study examines the potential of Renewable Energy Consumption (REC) in decreasing the impact of carbon emission in Iran and the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, which leads to global warming. Using the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis, this study analyses the impact of electricity generated using RES on the environment and trade openness for the period 1975-2011, using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach. Results of unit root tests show that all variables are non-stationary in their level form and stationary in first difference form. The Cointegration analysis shows that there is evidence of cointegration among the test variables. The validity of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis has been tested for these countries. Granger causality tests represent the existence of a unidirectional causality running from the square of per capita output to per capita CO_2 emissions and renewable energy. The renewable energy consumption and economic growth has a positive bidirectional causality and contribution on emissions in the short-term. There are certainly some clarifications that justify the causes of contribution of renewable energies on the emissions.