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Economic Growth and Environmental Degradation in the Paradigm of Energy Transition

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A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "C: Energy Economics and Policy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (27 October 2021) | Viewed by 19194

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Nuno Carlos Leitão

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Guest Editor

1. Polytechnic Institute of Santarém, Center for Advanced Studies in Management and Economics, Évora University, 1200-781 Lisbon, Portugal
2. Center for African and Development Studies, Lisbon Univesity, 1200-781 Lisbon, Portugal
Interests: energy economics; sustainable development; international economics; tourism; economic growth

Dr. Daniel Balsalobre-Lorente

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Guest Editor

Department of Political Economy and Public Finance, Economic and Business Statistics and Economic Policy, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Rectorado UCLM, Calle Altagracia, 50, 13001 Ciudad Real, Spain
Interests: energy transition; environmental degradation economic growth; tourism; public finances
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Oana Madalina Driha

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Guest Editor

Department of Applied Economics, International Economy Institute, Institute of Tourism Research, University of Alicante, 03690 Alicante, Spain
Interests: energy economics; environmental degradation; tourism; trade openness
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. José María Cantos

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Guest Editor

Department of Political Economy and Public Finance, Economics and Business Statistics and Economic Policy, University of Castilla La Mancha, 13071 Ciudad Real, Spain
Interests: energy economics; environmental degradation; public finances; tourism; economic growth; ICT; education; STEM employment

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue of Energies aims to reflect on the current role that energy transition is playing on the relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation, mainly through the empirical evidence of the EKC. Without abandoning this fundamental objective, this Special Issue also considers among its goals to share advances in the study of the impact that energy efficiency processes exercise not only on economic systems but also to deepen the social, environmental, and sustainability impact. Finally, the present Special Issue also intends to gather new empirical approaches to the link between foreign direct investment and environmental degradation, taking into consideration the role that natural resources and energy play on this connection. Therefore, it is intended to collect contributions aimed at validating the pollution shelter hypothesis, sustained in a new energy context. On the other hand, the current economic and energy context at the global level requires the analysis of the opening of trade, tourism, and globalization as fundamental drivers not only of economic growth but also of the processes of energy transition and environmental correction. As such, this Special Issue also aims to advance the role that energy innovation processes exercise on economic systems and how technical obsolescence can be harmful to ecological correction procedures.

Consequently, this Special Issue aims to capture further developments in the impact of economic growth and energy use on environmental degradation, considering as key variables the role that foreign direct investment, urbanization, tourism or energy innovation play on environmental degradation and social development, all under the umbrella of new econometric techniques of database analysis.

Prof. Dr. Nuno Carlos Leitão
Prof. Dr. Daniel Balsalobre Lorente
Prof. Dr. Oana M Driha
Prof. Dr. José María Cantos
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Energy economics
Economic growth
Tourism-led growth hypothesis
Pollution haven hypothesis
Environmental Kuznets curve
Renewable energy
Energy RD&D
Carbon emissions
Ecological footprint
Trade openness
Air transport
Urbanization
FDI
Sustainable growth

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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17 pages, 1356 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Renewable and Non-Renewable Energy Consumption in BRICS: Assessing the Dynamic Linkage between Foreign Capital Inflows and Energy Consumption

by Zhexuan Qin and Ilhan Ozturk

Energies 2021, 14(10), 2974; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14102974 - 20 May 2021

Cited by 32 | Viewed by 2388

Abstract

This study attempt to fill the research gap by figuring out the dynamic effects of foreign capital inflows effect on renewable energy and non-renewable consumption by using the time series non-linear ARDL approach for BRICS from 1991 to 2019. Non-linear ARDL estimates show that positive change in foreign capital inflows has a positive effect on renewable consumption in Brazil, India, and South Africa in long run. Also, the negative change in foreign capital inflows exhibits negatively liked with renewable energy consumption in BRICS economies, except Russia in long run. We find that positive shock in foreign capital inflows tends to increase non-renewable energy consumption in BRICS except India in the long run. Finding suggests that negative change in foreign capital inflows has negative impacts on non-renewable energy consumption in India and Brazil, while the positive effect in only China in the long run. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Economic Growth and Environmental Degradation in the Paradigm of Energy Transition)

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17 pages, 6888 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessing Eco-Efficiency in Asian and African Countries Using Stochastic Frontier Analysis

by Victor Moutinho and Mara Madaleno

Energies 2021, 14(4), 1168; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14041168 - 22 Feb 2021

Cited by 17 | Viewed by 2170

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate the economic and environmental efficiency of Asian and African economies. In the model proposed, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is considered as the desired output and Greenhouse Gases (GHG), like carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, as the undesirable output. Capital, labor, fossil fuels, and renewable energy consumption are regarded as inputs, and the GDP/CO₂ ratio is the output, by using a log-linear Translog production function and using data from 2005 until 2018, including 22 Asian and 22 African countries. Results evidence cross-countries heterogeneity among production inputs, namely labor, capital, and type of energy use and its efficiency. The models complement each other and are based on different distributional assumptions and estimation methods while providing a picture of Eco-efficiency in Asian and African economies. Labor and renewable energy share increase technical Eco-efficiency, while fixed capital decreases it under time-variant models. Technical improvements in Eco-efficiency are verified through time considering the time variable into the model estimations, replacing fossil fuels with renewable sources. An inverted U-shaped Eco-efficiency function is found concerning the share of fossil fuel consumption. Important policy implications are drawn from the results regarding the empirical results. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Economic Growth and Environmental Degradation in the Paradigm of Energy Transition)

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17 pages, 826 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Fresh Validation of the Low Carbon Development Hypothesis under the EKC Scheme in Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain

by Daniel Balsalobre-Lorente, Nuno Carlos Leitão and Festus Victor Bekun

Energies 2021, 14(1), 250; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14010250 - 05 Jan 2021

Cited by 45 | Viewed by 4128

Abstract

The present study is in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs) that address pertinent global issues. This study focuses on the need for access to clean and affordable energy consumption, responsible energy consumption, sustainable economic growth, and climate change mitigation. To this end, this paper evaluates the relevance of the renewable energy sector on the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) framework in Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain for the period 1995–2015. As an econometric strategy, we adopt the use of panel data over the highlighted countries. In the first step, we apply the unit root test recommended by Levin, Lin, and Chu in conjunction with ADF-Fisher, and Phillips-Perron for robustness and consistency. We found that the variables used in this study are integrated I (1) in the first difference. In the second step, we apply the Pedroni cointegration test, and Kao Residual cointegration test, and we observe that the variables are cointegrated in the long run. The generalized least squares (GLS), the panel fully modified least squares (FMOLS), ordinary least squares robust (OLS), and panel quantile regression are considered in this research. The econometric results validate the assumption of the environmental Kuznets curve, i.e., and there is a positive correlation between income per capita and a negative effect of squared income per capita on carbon dioxide emissions. In contrast, we observe that renewable energy reduces CO₂ emissions. Finally, we also find a direct connection between the urban population and the environmental degradation in the examined blocs. These results show that in Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain, more is required to achieve environmental sustainability in the respective countries growth trajectory. Further policy prescriptions are appended in the concluding section of this study. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Economic Growth and Environmental Degradation in the Paradigm of Energy Transition)

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16 pages, 275 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Linkage between Economic Growth, Renewable Energy, Tourism, CO₂ Emissions, and International Trade: The Evidence for the European Union

by Nuno Carlos Leitão and Daniel Balsalobre Lorente

Energies 2020, 13(18), 4838; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13184838 - 16 Sep 2020

Cited by 113 | Viewed by 5449

Abstract

This paper evaluates the link between economic growth, renewable energy, tourism arrivals, trade openness, and carbon dioxide emissions in the European Union (EU-28). As an econometric strategy, the research uses panel data. In the first step, we apply the unit root test, and the results demonstrated that the variables used in this study are integrated I (1) in the first difference. In the second step, we apply the Pedroni cointegration test, and Kao Residual cointegration test, and we observe that the variables are cointegrated in the long run. The panel fully modified least squares (FMOLS), panel dynamic least squares (DOLS), and generalized moments system (GMM-System) estimator are considered in this research. The econometric results proved that trade openness and renewable energy decreased climate change and environmental degradation. The empirical study also found a positive effect of economic growth on carbon dioxide emissions. Moreover, tourism arrivals are negatively correlated with carbon dioxide emissions, showing sustainability practices of the tourism sector on the environment. Furthermore, carbon dioxide emissions in the long run present a positive impact, indicating that climate change increases. In this study, we also consider the recent methodology of Dumitrescu–Hurlin to observe the causality and the relationship between renewable energy, trade openness, economic growth, tourism arrivals, and carbon dioxide emissions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Economic Growth and Environmental Degradation in the Paradigm of Energy Transition)

Review

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32 pages, 1633 KiB

Open AccessReview

Economic Issues in Deep Low-Carbon Energy Systems

by Ignacio Mauleón

Energies 2020, 13(16), 4151; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13164151 - 11 Aug 2020

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2755

Abstract

The main interlinked challenges to achieve a low-carbon emission economy are analyzed. It is argued first that there are no obstacles to a free market working effectively with a high penetration of distributed Renewable Energies (RE), since intermittency has been overstated, and affordable storage solutions are available because of strong learning rates. Demand-side management policies are promising too, neither are there foreseeable boundaries to the availability of economically extractable photovoltaic and wind energies. A full 100% RE system may be more challenging though, partly because bioenergy, a key dispatchable source in most available RE roadmaps, clashes with growing food needs and reforestation to counter greenhouse gases emissions. Similarly, the green growth proposal is constrained by materials availability, mainly cobalt and phosphorus, which will also constrain the deployment of electric vehicles. Alternatively, the United Nations Human Development Index may be a more suitable target for a sustainable RE system. Although history is not reassuring, the main global economic hurdle is possibly existing fossil fuel-related investments, likely to become stranded. An assessment of their value yields a substantially lower figure than is sometimes claimed, though. Finally, a limited role for nuclear energy is assessed positively, provided it is publicly owned. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Economic Growth and Environmental Degradation in the Paradigm of Energy Transition)

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