This study employed the FMOLS and DOLS models to examine the impact of renewable energy, trade openness and economic growth on CO2
emissions in MENA countries over the period 1990-2023. Furthermore, we employ SGMM approach in order to robustify DOLS and FMOLS results.
Our findings reveal that the renewable energy promotes the environmental quality by decreasing the CO2
emissions in the MENA countries. However,
the economic growth increases the carbon emissions. The study reveals also that instead of the conventional U-shaped EKC hypothesis, there is the
inversed U-shaped relationship between CO2
emissions and economic growth in the long run. For the trade openness, it has a negative effect on CO2
emissions, in the SGMM model. However, our findings in the FMOLS and DOLS show that it increases the CO2
emissions in the long run. Then this
paper suggests that MENA policy makers should maximise the use of renewable energy and ensure the efficient utilization of GDP and trade openness
in order to minimise the level of CO2
emissions.
