Do Technological Innovation And Renewable Energy Consumption in Japan Important For Consumption-Based Carbon Emissions?

Document Type : Original Research Paper

Authors

1 Faculty of Economics and Administrative Science, Cyprus International University, Nicosia, Northern Cyprus, Mersin 10-Turkey

2 School of Computing and Technology, Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta, Northern Cyprus, Mersin 10-Turkey

3 Faculty of Economics and Administrative Science, European University of Lefke, Northern Cyprus, Mersin 10-Turkey

4 Management Information Systems, Cyprus International University, Nicosia, Northern Cyprus, Mersin 10-Turkey

Abstract

With growing global warming issues, the association between technological innovation and environmental pollution has created significant debate in recent years. This paper examines the long-run and causal impact of technological innovation, economic growth, and renewable energy on consumption-based carbon emissions in Japan. The study utilized quarterly data spanning between 1990 and 2015. The study utilized recent econometrics techniques such as Maki co-integration, ARDL bunds test, FMOLS, DOLS, and frequency domain causality techniques. To the author's understanding, no prior studies have been conducted in Japan using consumption-based carbon emissions as a proxy of environmental degradation. Thus, this empirical analysis contributes to the literature. The findings from the ARDL bounds and Maki co-integration tests revealed evidence of co-integration among the series. The results of FMOLS and DOLS reveal that both renewable energy and technological innovation improve the environmental quality, while economic growth harms the quality of the environment. The results of the frequency-domain causality technique reveal that technological innovation, renewable energy, and economic growth can significantly predict consumption-based carbon emissions in Japan. Based on these outcomes, we suggested that Japan's government should be careful when formulating policies that trigger growth, which will have a detrimental impact on the environmental quality. Our empirical outcome also revealed that any policy that encourages renewable energy should be encouraged since it enhances environmental quality.

Keywords


Adebayo, T. S. (2020a). Revisiting the EKC hypothesis in an emerging market: an application of ARDL-based bounds and wavelet coherence approaches. SN App. Sci., 2(12), 1-15.
Adebayo, T. S. (2021b). Testing the EKC Hypothesis in Indonesia: Empirical Evidence from the ARDL-Based Bounds and Wavelet Coherence Approaches. App. Econ. J., 28(1), 1-23.
Akinsola, G. D. and Adebayo, T. S. (2021). Investigating the Causal Linkage among Economic Growth, Energy Consumption and CO 2 Emissions in Thailand: An Application of the Wavelet Coherence Approach. Int. J. Ren. Eng. Dev., 10(1). Algunaibet, I. M., Pozo, C., Galán-Martín, Á., Huijbregts, M. A., Mac Dowell, N. and Guillén-Gosálbez, G. (2019). Powering Sust. Dev. within planetary boundaries. Energ. Environ. Sci, 12(6), 1890-1900.
288 Adebayo et al.
Alola, A. A. and Kirikkaleli, D. (2019). The nexus of environmental quality with renewable consumption, immigration, and healthcare in the US: wavelet and gradual-shift causality approaches. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res., 26(34), 35208-35217.
Alola, A. A., Saint Akadiri, S., Akadiri, A. C., Alola, U. V. and Fatigun, A. S. (2019). Cooling and heating degree days in the US: The role of macroeconomic variables and its impact on environmental sustainability. Sci. Total Environ. 695, 133832.
Alola, A. A., Yalçiner, K., Alola, U. V. and Saint Akadiri, S. (2019). The role of renewable energy, immigration and real income in environmental sustainability target. Evidence from Europe largest states. Sci. Total Environ. 674, 307-315. Atasoy, B. S. (2017). Testing the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis across the US: Evidence from panel mean group estimators. Ren. Sustain. Energ. Rev., 77, 731-747.
Awosusi, A. A., Adeshola, I., and Adebayo, T. S. (2020). Determinants of CO2 Emissions in Emerging Markets: An Empirical Evidence from MINT Economies. Int. J. Ren. Eng. Dev., 9(3), 411-423. Balsalobre-Lorente, D., Shahbaz, M., Roubaud, D. and Farhani, S. (2018). How economic growth, renewable electricity and natural resources contribute to CO2 emissions?. Energ. Pol., 113, 356-367. Bekun, F. V., Alola, A. A. and Sarkodie, S. A. (2019). Toward a sustainable environment: Nexus between CO2 emissions, resource rent, renewable and nonRen. Energ. in 16-EU countries. Sci. Total Environ. 657, 1023-1029.
Beton Kalmaz, D. and Adebayo, T. S. (2020). Ongoing Debate Between Foreign Aid and Economic Growth in Nigeria: A Wavelet Analysis. Soc. Sci. Quart., 101(5), 2032-2051.
Bhattacharya, M., Churchill, S. A. and Paramati, S. R. (2017). The dynamic impact of renewable energy and institutions on economic output and CO2 emissions across regions. Ren. Energ., 111, 157-167.
Bilgili, F., Koçak, E. and Bulut, Ü. (2016). The dynamic impact of renewable energy consumption on CO2 emissions: a revisited Environmental Kuznets Curve approach. Ren. Sustain. Energ. Rev., 54, 838-845.
Breitung, J. and Candelon, B. (2006). Testing for short-and long-run causality: A frequency-domain approach. J. Econom., 132(2), 363-378.
Chen, Y. and Lee, C. C. (2020). Does technological innovation reduce CO2 emissions? Cross-country evidence. J. Clen. Prod., 121550. Destek, M. A., and Sarkodie, S. A. (2019). Investigation of environmental Kuznets curve for ecological footprint: the role of energy and financial development. Sci. Total Environ. 650, 2483-2489. Diffenbaugh, N. S., Field, C. B., Appel, E. A., Azevedo, I. L., Baldocchi, D. D., Burke, M. and Fletcher, S. M. (2020). The COVID-19 lockdowns: a window into the Earth System. Nat. Rev. Eart. Environ. 1-12.
Du, K. and Li, J. (2019). Towards a green world: How do green technology innovations affect total-factor carbon productivity. Energ. Pol., 131, 240-250.
EIA, U. (2019). Energy Information Administration. International Energy Outlook. US Department of Energy. https://www.eia.gov/international/overview/country/IDN. (retrieved 8 July 2020)
Eminer, F., Adebayo, T. S. and Awosusi, A. A. (2020). Stock Market-Growth Relationship in an Emerging Economy: Empirical Finding from ARDL-Based Bounds and Causality Approaches. J. Econ. Bus., 3(2), 903-916. Fan, Y., Liu, L. C., Wu, G. and Wei, Y. M. (2006). Analyzing impact factors of CO2 emissions using the STIRPAT model. Enviro. Imp. Assess. Rev., 26(4), 377-395.
Fethi, S. and Rahuma, A. (2019). The role of eco-innovation on CO 2 emission reduction in an extended version of the environmental Kuznets curve: evidence from the top 20 refined oil exporting countries. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res., 26(29), 30145-30153.
Pollution 2021, 7(2): 275-291 289
Gokmenoglu, K. K., Olasehinde-Williams, G. O. and Taspinar, N. (2019). Testing the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis: the role of deforestation. In Energy and environmental strategies in the era of globalization (pp. 61-83). Springer, Cham.
Gregory, A. W. and Hansen, B. E. (1996). Practitioners corner: tests for cointegration in models with regime and trend shifts. Oxford bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 58(3), 555-560.
Hatemi-j, A. (2008). Tests for cointegration with two unknown regime shifts with an application to financial market integration. Emp. Econ., 35(3), 497-505.
Hu, M., Li, R., You, W., Liu, Y. and Lee, C. C. (2020). Spatiotemporal evolution of decoupling and driving forces of CO2 emissions on economic growth along the Belt and Road. J. Clen. Prod., 277, 123272.
Ike, G. N., Usman, O., Alola, A. A. and Sarkodie, S. A. (2020). Environmental quality effects of income, energy prices and trade: The role of renewable energy consumption in G-7 countries. Sci. Total Environ. 137813. Kahouli, B. (2018). The causality link between energy electricity consumption, CO2 emissions, R&D stocks and economic growth in Mediterranean countries (MCs). Energy, 145, 388-399.
Katırcıoğlu, S., Fethi, S., Kalmaz, D. B. and Çağlar, D. (2016). Interactions between energy consumption, international trade, and real income in Canada: an empirical investigation from a new version of the Solow growth model. Int. J. of Gr. Energ., 13(10), 1059-1074. Khan, Z., Ali, M., Kirikkaleli, D., Wahab, S. and Jiao, Z. (2020a). The impact of technological innovation and public‐private partnership investment on sustainable environment in China: Consumption‐based carbon emissions analysis. Sustain. Dev.. 3(4), 106-120 Khan, Z., Hussain, M., Shahbaz, M., Yang, S. and Jiao, Z. (2020b). Natural resource abundance, technological innovation, and human capital nexus with financial development: a case study of China. Res. Pol., 65, 101585.
Khattak, S. I., Ahmad, M., Khan, Z. U. and Khan, A. (2020c). Exploring the impact of innovation, Ren. Energ. consumption, and income on CO2 emissions: new evidence from the BRICS economies. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res., 1-16.
Khoshnevis Yazdi, S. and Ghorchi Beygi, E. (2018). The dynamic impact of renewable energy consumption and financial development on CO2 emissions: For selected African countries. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res., 13(1), 13-20. Kick, C. (2011). How is 100% renewable energy possible for Turkey by 2020. Global Energy Network Institute (GENI).
Kirikkaleli, D. and Adebayo, T. S. (2020). Do renewable energy consumption and financial development matter for environmental sustainability? New global evidence. Sustain. Dev., 4(8).
Available at: https:// DOI: 10.1002/SD.2159Kirikkaleli, D., Adebayo, T. S., Khan, Z. and Ali, S. (2020). Does globalization matter for ecological footprint in Turkey? Evidence from dual adjustment approach. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res., 1-9. Kulak, M., Graves, A. and Chatterton, J. (2013). Reducing greenhouse gas emissions with urban agriculture: A Life Cycle Assessment perspective. Land. Urb. Plan., 111, 68-78. Lantz, V. and Feng, Q. (2006). Assessing income, population, and technology impacts on CO2 emissions in Canada: where's the EKC?. Ecolog. Econ., 57(2), 229-238. Lechevalier, S. and Monfort, B. (2018, April). Abenomics: has it worked? Will it ultimately fail?. In Japan Forum (Vol. 30, No. 2, pp. 277-302). Routledge. Li, T., Shen, H., Yuan, Q., Zhang, X. and Zhang, L. (2017). Estimating ground‐level PM2. 5 by fusing satellite and station observations: a geo‐intelligent deep learning approach. Geop. Res. Let., 44(23), 11-985. Li, X., Guo, F., Li, H. and Li, G. (2015). Nonthermally dominated electron acceleration during magnetic reconnection in a low-β plasma. The Astrop. J. Let., 811(2), L24.
Liang, S., Zhao, J., He, S., Xu, Q. and Ma, X. (2019). Spatial econometric analysis of carbon emission intensity in Chinese provinces from the perspective of innovation-driven. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res., 26(14), 13878-13895.
290 Adebayo et al.
Luan, B., Huang, J. and Zou, H. (2019). Domestic R&D, technology acquisition, technology assimilation and China's industrial carbon intensity: Evidence from a dynamic panel threshold model. Sci. Total Environ. 693, 133436.
Luan, B., Huang, J. and Zou, H. (2019). Domestic R&D, technology acquisition, technology assimilation and China's industrial carbon intensity: Evidence from a dynamic panel threshold model. Sci. Total Environ. 693, 133436.
Mensah, C. N., Long, X., Dauda, L., Boamah, K. B. and Salman, M. (2019). Innovation and CO 2 emissions: the complimentary role of eco-patent and trademark in the OECD economies. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res., 26(22), 22878-22891.
Muhammad, B. (2019). Energy consumption, CO2 emissions and economic growth in developed, emerging and Middle East and North Africa countries. Energy, 179, 232-245. Nesta, L., Vona, F. and Nicolli, F. (2014). Environmental policies, competition and innovation in renewable energy. J. Environ. Econ. Manag., 67(3), 396-411.
Odugbesan, J. A. and Adebayo, T. S. (2020). Modeling CO2 emissions in South Africa: empirical evidence from ARDL based bounds and wavelet coherence techniques. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res., 1-13.
Odugbesan, J. A. and Adebayo, T. S. (2020). The symmetrical and asymmetrical effects of foreign direct investment and financial development on carbon emission: evidence from Nigeria. SN App. Sci., 2(12), 1-15.
Onyibor, K., Akinsola, G. D., and Adebayo, T. S. (2020). The impact of major macroeconomic variables on foreign direct investment in Nigeria: evidence from a wavelet coherence technique. SN Bus. & Econ., 1(1), 1-24. Panwar, N. L., Kaushik, S. C. and Kothari, S. (2011). Role of renewable energy sources in environmental protection: A review. Ren. Sustain. Energ. Rev., 15(3), 1513-1524. Peña-Fernández, A., Magnet, A. and Pena-Fernandez, M. A. (2018, July). Focus group to create a virtual case study model unit for the DMU e-Parasitology. EDULEARN18 Proceedings.
Rahman, M. M., Saidi, K. and Mbarek, M. B. (2020). Economic growth in South Asia: the role of CO2 emissions, population density and trade openness. Heliyon, 6(5), e03903.
Saidi, K. and Omri, A. (2020). Reducing CO2 emissions in OECD countries: Do renewable and nuclear energy matter?. Progress in Nuclear Energy, 126, 103425.
Salman, M., Long, X., Dauda, L., Mensah, C. N. and Muhammad, S. (2019). Different impacts of export and import on carbon emissions across 7 ASEAN countries: A panel quantile regression approach. Sci. Total Environ. 686, 1019-1029.
Shahbaz, M., Raghutla, C., Song, M., Zameer, H. and Jiao, Z. (2020). Public-private partnerships investment in energy as new determinant of CO2 emissions: the role of technological innovations in China. Energy Economics, 86, 104664. Sohag, K., Begum, R. A., Abdullah, S. M. S. and Jaafar, M. (2015). Dynamics of energy use, technological innovation, economic growth and trade openness in Malaysia. Energy, 90, 1497-1507.
Solarin, S. A. and Shahbaz, M. (2013). Trivariate causality between economic growth, urbanisation and electricity consumption in Angola: Cointegration and causality analysis. Energ. Pol., 60, 876-884. Song, Y., Zhang, M. and Shan, C. (2019). Research on the decoupling trend and mitigation potential of CO2 emissions from China's transport sector. Energy, 183, 837-843.
Töbelmann, D. and Wendler, T. (2020). The impact of environmental innovation on carbon dioxide emissions. J. Clen. Prod., 244, 118787. Tugcu, C. T., Ozturk, I. and Aslan, A. (2012). Renewable and non-Ren. Energ. consumption and economic growth relationship revisited: evidence from G7 countries. Energ. Econ., 34(6), 1942-1950.
Usman, O., Alola, A. A. and Sarkodie, S. A. (2020). Assessment of the role of renewable energy consumption and trade policy on environmental degradation using innovation accounting: Evidence from the US. Ren. Energ., 150, 266-277.
Pollution 2021, 7(2): 275-291 291
Wakiyama, T. and Kuriyama, A. (2018). Assessment of Renewable Energy expansion potential and its implications on reforming Japan's electricity system. Energ. Pol., 115, 302-316. Yoro, K. O., and Daramola, M. O. (2020). CO2 emission sources, greenhouse gases, and the global warming effect. In Advances in Carbon Capture (pp. 3-28). Woodhead Publishing. Zhang, X. N., Zhong, Q. Y., Qu, Y. and Li, H. L. (2017). Liquefied natural gas importing security strategy considering multi-factor: A multi-objective programming approach. Expert Systems with Applications, 87, 56-69.
Zhu, D., Mortazavi, S. M., Maleki, A., Aslani, A. and Yousefi, H. (2020). Analysis of the robustness of energy supply in Japan: Role of Renewable Energy. Energy Reports, 6, 378-391.