Achieving carbon neutrality in energy transition economies: exploring the environmental efficiency of natural gas efficiency, coal efficiency, and resources efficiency

Abstract

This study inspects the environmental impact of resource efficiency, natural gas efficiency, and coal efficiency in the top energy transition economies while incorporating economic growth and globalization, social globalization, political globalization, and economic globalization as control variables. We utilized the method of moments quantile regression to analyze a dataset from 1990 to 2021, while the dynamic ordinary least square, fixed-effect ordinary least square, and fully modified ordinary least square methods were used for robustness analysis. The outcomes of the estimators revealed that coal efficiency and natural gas efficiency contribute to the decline in CO2 emissions. Conversely, the results further indicated that globalization, economic growth, resource efficiency, social globalization, political globalization, and economic globalization intensify CO2 emissions. Furthermore, the panel Granger causality test was also utilized, which revealed evidence of a bidirectional causality association between CO2 emissions and all regressors except for coal efficiency and economic globalization. However, a unidirectional causal connection was identified from CO2 emissions to coal efficiency and economic globalization. From the observed outcomes alongside the inferences drawn from the Granger causality analysis, we offer a holistic policy approach for attaining carbon neutrality by driving the development and implementation of energy efficiency initiatives. Graphical abstract