Energy consumption, economic growth and CO2 emissions: evidence from G7 countries

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to find out the relationship between energy consumption, economic growth and CO2 emissions for the G7 countries over the period 1971–2014. The second intent of the paper is to make a comparison whether it is renewable energy consumption, non-renewable energy consumption, or both that determine sustainable economic growth in G7 countries. Design/methodology/approach The authors testify the relationship among energy consumption, economic growth and CO2 emissions using numerous econometric techniques. The authors have applied pooled mean group autoregressive distribution model (ARDL) for long-run and short-run relationships for individual countries. Finally, the authors have applied Granger causality testing based on Dumitrescu and Hurlin (2012) and Emirmahmutoglu and Kose’s (2011) approach in order to check the causal relationship between energy consumption and economic growth, CO2 emission and economic growth and vice versa. Findings However, energy usage is a greater concern due to the increase in imported energy prices. With this preposition, new thinking needs to be carried out for energy usage and sustainable economic growth. The authors consider cross-sectional reliance and cross-country heterogeneity for seven developed countries. The tests utilized in this investigation include the bootstrap causality approach of Dumitrescu and Hurlin (2012) and LA–VAR approach of Toda and Yamamoto (1995) that permits testing the causality for every individual panel individuals independently. However, not very many empirical works bring these two separate streams of writing together to analyze the causal connections between energy consumption, economic growth and CO2 emission for G7 countries. Originality/value However, energy usage is a greater concern due to the increase in imported energy prices. Meanwhile, the exhaustive use of fossil fuels increases emission level which leads to climate change, global warming, reduction in agriculture productivity and danger to human life. With this preposition, new thinking needs to be carried out for energy usage and sustainable economic growth. There are limited number of studies addressing energy consumption, economic growth and CO2 emission relationship. This study employs different methodology to find out the relationship among the variables.