Pollution and renewable energy consumption in the V4 countries

• Published in: Environmental science and pollution research international Vol. 31; no. 2; pp. 1954 - 1963
• Main Author: Simionescu, Mihaela
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.01.2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Alternative energy sources; Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Autoregressive models; Carbon dioxide; Carbon dioxide emissions; Climate change; Czech Republic; Data models; Earth and Environmental Science; Economic growth; Ecotoxicology; Emissions; Energy consumption; Energy resources; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental effects; Environmental Health; Environmental impact; Environmental policy; Environmental quality; foreign direct investment; Generalized method of moments; Hungary; issues and policy; Poland; Political factors; politics; Pollution; Pollution levels; Renewable energy; renewable energy sources; Renewable resources; Research Article; Slovakia; time series analysis; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; Poland; Czech Republic; Slovakia; Hungary; ARDL models; Pollution; CO; Renewable energy consumption; emissions; CO2 emissions
• ISSN: 1614-7499; 0944-1344; 1614-7499
• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-023-31223-y

Considering quite high levels of pollution in V4 countries, the aim of this paper is to assess if renewable energy consumption reduces CO 2 emissions in the period 1996–2022. The time series approach based on autoregressive distributed lag models (ARDL models) for each state in the sample indicated that renewable energy consumption reduced CO 2 emissions, while GDP enhanced pollution. Foreign direct investment had no effect on environmental quality. Political stability had no impact on pollution in Poland and Hungary, while it reduced CO 2 emissions in the Czech Republic and enhanced them in Slovakia. The results are subject to policy proposals.