Relationship Between Renewable Energy and CO₂ Emissions in BRICS Countries

This paper investigates the nexus of renewable energy, non-renewable energy, GDP and CO₂ emissions in a 1990–2017 sample of BRICS countries to analyse the need for better policy framework and future action needed to tackle climate change. Panel Unit Root tests, Panel co-integration tests and long-run estimates that there exists a long-run relationship between CO₂ emissions, GDP, renewable energy and non-renewable energy for the BRICS countries. It was then seen in the panel OLS results that increased renewable energy consumption can significantly reduce CO₂ emissions, whereas the panel FMOLS and panel DOLS results do not show any significant relationship between these two variables. All the three estimation results show that increase in non-renewable fuel consumption would result in CO₂ emission, thus confirming the positive relationship between non-renewable energy consumption and CO₂ emissions. The analysis also suggests that increased presence of renewable energy in the BRICS nations have avoided emissions, but the extent has not been significantly large. Thus, BRICS countries’ policymakers should encourage more consumption of renewable energy for better results.