Evaluating a pathway for environmental sustainability: the role of energy mix and research and development in European countries

Abstract

In the European Union (EU), most countries are developed and economic activities are climbing. Because of that, CO 2 emissions in this area are rising. The EU must nd ways to reduce pollution before it is too late to ensure long-term sustainable growth. The study applies the STIRPAT model to check the impact of population, income, renewable energy, nuclear energy, and research and development on the environment.A newly developed Cross Section Autoregressive Distributed Lag (CS-ARDL) technique is used to investigate annual time series data from 1990 to 2021 for 30 European countries with slope heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence. According to the study's ndings, fossil fuels and the population contribute to environmental pollution. On the other hand, increasing income and the use of renewable and nuclear energy can reduce long-term pollution. Similarly, research and development also help to reduce environmental degradation. The research shows that if the EU wants to stop the environment from getting worse, renewable energy is a must. It also shows that rising national wealth alone won't be enough to meet environmental needs.

An Empirical Investigation of GDP, Industrialization, Population, Renewable Energy and CO2 Emission in Bangladesh: Bridging EKC-STIRPAT Models

“…The impact of renewable energy is beneficial and significant for environment. Simila results findings by Sultana et al (2023), Raihan et al (2023), Panwar et al (2011), andChien (2022).…”

“…CO 2 emissions can be reduced further by using renewable energy to power vehicles rather than their traditional fossil fuel counterparts. By using renewable energy to power electric vehicles, for instance, we may drastically cut transportation-related CO 2 emissions (Voumik and Mimi, 2023;Pattak et al, 2023;Voumik and Mimi, 2023;Zimon et al, 2023). On the other hand, industrialization has negative impact on CO 2 emission in the short run.…”

The Impact of Fossil Fuels, Renewable Energy, and Nuclear Energy on South Korea’s Environment Based on the STIRPAT Model: ARDL, FMOLS, and CCR Approaches

“…In the case of South Korea, energy is to be based on nuclear energy as a key tool for reducing emissions in the future, instead of solar, wind, or hydropower. Certainly, this will have a positive impact on the environment, but it is a completely different approach to changes in the energy policy compared to Western European countries, where nuclear energy is rather replaced by renewable energy [122][123][124]. In Europe, only Poland is an example of a country that intends to base its energy policy on nuclear energy by building small nuclear reactors.…”