CO2 MITIGATION: SOLAR AND WIND ENERGY OVERTAKING HYDROPOWER EVIDENCE FROM 20 SELECTED COUNTRIES

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to make a deeper investigation into the impact of Renewable Energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Unlike in previous studies, types of renewable sources of energy in this research were depleted and considered separately. Namely, the top 20 most wind and solar-powered countries were selected and the research was made on how these two types of renewable energies assist in the CO2 mitigation process by running panel data regression with 3 control variables: wind and solar energy taken as a single control variable, hydropower and GDP per capita for the period 2000-2018. The findings suggest, that a 1% increase in the usage of wind and solar power for electricity generation decreases CO2 emissions by 0.133 metric tons per capita, similarly a 1% increase in hydroelectric sources for electricity generation decrease CO2 emissions by 0.028metric tons per capita. Meanwhile, a 1 % rise in GDP per capita increases CO2 output by 2.635 metric tons per capita.