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The consequences of human activities on the ecosystem and the environment have its inherent implications. This has been a topical discourse among energy economist /environmental practitioners and government officials saddled with the mandate to formulate energy blueprint and action plans. Thus, the need to carefully underpin the root cause and propose possible ways to mitigate against the protection of the environment is pertinent in a time of global consciousness towards green energy sources. This thesis is based upon this motivation. The thesis is structured into four parts. First, the investigation of energy use and economic growth nexus from 1960 to 2016 in South Africa while accounting for capital, labor, and carbon dioxide emissions. We applied Bayer and Hanck (2013) combined co-integration approach, Pesaran, et al. (2001) bounds test and Kripfganz and Schneider (2018) critical values and approximate p-values. The empirical evidence finds support for a long-run equilibrium relationship among investigated variables. The Granger causality test indicates one-way causality from energy use to economic growth, validating the energy-led growth hypothesis. Our study found an inverted U-shaped pattern between energy use and economic growth in the long run. This finding suggests that at a higher level of economic development there is less intensification of energy consumption, hence, signifying a decline in energy intensity while validating energy efficiency in South Africa. The second strands of this thesis proceed to examine the long-run and causal interaction between, renewable energy consumption, non-renewable energy consumption, and economic growth in a carbon function. The current study incorporates natural resources rent to the model as an additional variable. Empirical evidence is based on a balanced panel data between annual periods of 1996-2014 for selected EU-16 countries. The Kao test reveals a cointegration between carbon dioxide emissions, economic growth, natural resources rent, renewable, and nonrenewable energy consumption. The Panel Pooled Mean Group-Autoregressive Auto regressive distributive lag model (PMG-ARDL) suggests a positive significant relationship between the countries’ natural resource rent and CO2 emissions in the long-run. Implying that the overdependence on natural resource rent affects environmental sustainability of the panel countries if conservation and management options are ignored. Our study affirms that nonrenewable energy consumption and economic growth increase carbon emission flaring while renewable consumption declines CO2 emissions. The panel causality analysis reveals a feedback mechanism between economic growth, renewable, and nonrenewable energy consumption. We further observed a feedback causality between natural resources rent and economic growth. Effective policy implications could be drawn toward cleaner and environmentally friendly energy sources, especially in attaining the Sustainable Development Goals. The third strand of this dissertation offers a new perspective to the electricity-led growth hypothesis for the case of Pakistan. The dissertation revisits the interaction between electricity consumption, real gross domestic product and carbon dioxide emissions in Pakistan. To this end, our study relies on annual data from 1971-2014 for the econometric analysis while accounting for the structural break(s). According to the Maki cointegration test, a cointegration equilibrium relationship exists among electricity consumption, economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions. The empirical findings from Toda-Yamamoto causality test provided the following insights: (i) A unidirectional causality was found running from economic growth to electricity consumption. Thus, this study validates the conservative hypothesis, meaning that in Pakistan, conservative energy strategies cannot harm economic progress. (ii) Causality was also found running from electricity consumption to carbon dioxide emissions. This implies that industrial activities trigger an increase in carbon emissions flaring which in return translates into environmental degradation. This outcome has inherent policy implications which are further discussed in the conclusion section. Finally, the last section of this dissertation dwells on electricity consumption, carbon dioxide emissions and economic growth for the case of Zimbabwe. To achieve this, the study set off by examining the stationarity properties of the variables under review with the Zivot-Andrews (1992) unit root test that accounts for a single structural break. Subsequently, Maki (2012) cointegration test, which accounts for multiple structural breaks, is applied for equilibrium relationship between the variables under review while the long run regression of dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) is employed for long-run coefficients as estimation procedures. In order to account for the direction of causality flow the Toda-Yamamoto (1995) causality test is used for annual frequency data set spanning from 1971-2014. Empirical evidence from the Maki cointegration test shows that there exists a long-run equilibrium relationship between electricity consumption, carbon dioxide emissions and real gross domestic product per capita over the sampled period. The long-run regression suggests that there exists a positive statistically significant relationship between real income and electricity consumption. Thus, corroborating the electricity-led growth hypothesis. This result is supported by the causality test, as one-way causality is observed running from electricity consumption to real gross domestic product. Thus, this is suggestive to government administrators and policymakers that the Zimbabwean economy is electricity dependent. However, there is a tradeoff for environmental quality. As increase in electricity consumption increases carbon dioxide emissions. The need for diversification of Zimbabwe energy portfolio to cleaner and environmentally friendly energy sources is recommended given the world global consciousness for cleaner energy consumption. Keywords: Energy conservation hypothesis, energy consumption, combined cointegration, Dynamic causality, Renewable energy consumption, non-renewable, Electricity Consumption, Economic Growth, Maki Cointegration, South Africa, and Pakistan. ÖZ: İnsan faaliyetlerinin ekosistem ve çevre üzerindeki sonuçlarının kendine has etkileri vardır. Bu, enerji planını ve eylem planlarını formüle etme zorunluluğuyla ilgilenen enerji ekonomisti / çevre pratisyenleri ve hükümet yetkilileri arasında güncel bir konu olmuştur. Bu nedenle, çevresel problemlerin kök nedenini dikkatlice araştırmak ve çevrenin korunmasına karşı önlem almanın olası yollarını önerme ihtiyacı, yeşil enerji kaynaklarına karşı küresel bilinçlenme döneminde geçerlidir. Bu tez, bu motivasyona dayanmaktadır. Tez dört bölüme ayrılmıştır. İlk olarak, Güney Afrika'da 1960'tan 2016'ya enerji kullanımı ve ekonomik büyüme ilişkisi, sermaye, emek ve karbondioksit emisyonları dikkate alınarak araştırılmıştır. Bu ilişkiyi araştırmak için Bayer ve Hanck (2013) eşbütünleşme yaklaşımı, Pesaran ve ark. (2001) sınır testi ve Kripfganz ve Schneider (2018) kritik değerleri ve yaklaşık p değerleri uygulanmıştır. Ampirik kanıt, incelenen değişkenler arasında uzun dönemli bir ilişki olduğunu desteklemektedir. Granger nedensellik testi, enerji kaynaklı büyüme hipotezini doğrulayarak, enerji kullanımından ekonomik büyümeye tek yönlü bir nedensellik ilişkisi olduğunu göstermektedir. Çalışmamızda, uzun vadede enerji kullanımı ile ekonomik büyüme arasında ters U şeklinde bir ilişki bulunmuştur. Bu bulgu, daha yüksek bir ekonomik gelişme düzeyinde, enerji tüketiminde daha az yoğunlaşma olduğunu, dolayısıyla Güney Afrika'da enerji verimliliğini doğrularken enerji yoğunluğunda bir düşüş olduğunu göstermektedir. Tezin ikinci kısmında, bir karbon fonksiyonunda yenilenebilir enerji tüketimi, yenilenemeyen enerji tüketimi ve ekonomik büyüme arasındaki uzun dönem ve nedensellik ilişkisi incelenmektedir. Bu çalışma, kiralanan doğal kaynaklar modele ek bir değişken olarak dahil edilmiştir. Ampirik sonuçlar, seçilen AB-16 ülkeleri için yıllık 1996-2014 dönemleri arasındaki dengeli bir panel verilerine dayanmaktadır. Kao testi, karbondioksit emisyonları, ekonomik büyüme, doğal kaynaklar kirası, yenilenebilir ve yenilenemeyen enerji tüketimi arasında bir uzun dönemli bir ilişki olduğunu ortaya koymaktadır. Panel Havuzlanmış Ortalama Grup-Gecikmesi dağıtılmış otoregresif model (PMG-ARDL) sonuçları, uzun vadede ülkelerin doğal kaynak kirası ve CO2 emisyonları arasında pozitif bir ilişki olduğunu göstermektedir. Koruma ve yönetim seçeneklerinin göz ardı edilmesi durumunda, doğal kaynak kirasına aşırı bağımlılığın panel ülkelerinin çevresel sürdürülebilirliğini etkilediği ortaya konmuştur. Çalışmamız, yenilenemeyen enerji tüketiminin ve ekonomik büyümenin karbon salınımını artırdığını, yenilenebilir tüketimin CO2 emisyonlarını azalttığını doğrulamaktadır. Panel nedensellik analizi, ekonomik büyüme, yenilenebilir ve yenilenemeyen enerji tüketimi arasında bir geri bildirim mekanizması ortaya koymaktadır. Ayrıca, doğal kaynak kirası ile ekonomik büyüme arasında bir geri beslemeli nedensellik ilişkisi bulunmuştur. Özellikle sürdürülebilir kalkınma hedeflerine ulaşmak için daha temiz ve çevre dostu enerji kaynaklarına yönelik etkili politika sonuçları çizilebilir. Bu tezin üçüncü kısmı, Pakistan için elektrik kaynaklı büyüme hipotezi üzerine yeni bir bakış açısı sunmaktadır. Tez, Pakistan'da elektrik tüketimi, reel gayri safi yurtiçi hasıla ve karbondioksit emisyonları arasındaki ilişkiyi incelemektedir. Bu amaçla, çalışmamız, yapısal kırılmayı dikkate alan ekonometrik analizler için 1971-2014 yılları arasındaki yıllık verilere dayanmaktadır. Maki eşbütünleşme testine göre, elektrik tüketimi, ekonomik büyüme ve karbondioksit emisyonları arasında uzun dönemli ilişki vardır. Toda-Yamamoto nedensellik testinden elde edilen ampirik bulgular: (i) Ekonomik büyümeden elektrik tüketimine tek yönlü bir nedensellik ilişkisi bulunmuştur. Bu nedenle, bu çalışma muhafazakâr hipotezini doğrular, yani Pakistan'da muhafazakâr enerji stratejileri ekonomik ilerlemeye zarar veremez. (ii) elektrik tüketiminden karbondioksit emisyonlarına da tek yönlü nedensellik ilişkisi bulunmuştur. Bu sonuca göre, endüstriyel faaliyetler, karbon salınımında bir artışa neden olur ve bunun karşılığında çevresel bozulmaya neden olduğu bulunmuştur. Son olarak, bu tezin son bölümünde, Zimbabwe için elektrik tüketimi, karbondioksit emisyonları ve ekonomik büyüme ilişkisi ele alınmıştır. Bu amaçla çalışmada öncelikle, incelenen değişkenlerin durağanlık özelliklerini incelemek için tek bir yapısal kırılmayı dikkate alan Zivot-Andrews (1992) birim kök testi uygulanmıştır. Daha sonra, birden fazla yapısal kırılmayı hesaba katan Maki (2012) eşbütünleşme testi incelenen değişkenler arasındaki denge ilişkisine uygulanırken, dinamik en küçük kareler yöntemi (DOLS) uzun dönem regresyonu tahmin prosedürleri olarak uzun dönem katsayıları için kullanılır. Nedensellik ilişkisinin yönünü belirleyebilmek için, Toda-Yamamoto (1995) nedensellik testi, 1971-2014 arasında değişen yıllık frekans verileri için kullanılmıştır. Maki eşbütünleşme testinden elde edilen ampirik sonuçlara göre, incelenen dönemde elektrik tüketimi, karbondioksit emisyonları ve kişi başına düşen reel gayri safi yurtiçi hasıla arasında uzun dönemli bir ilişki bulunmuştur. Uzun dönem regresyon sonuçları ise reel gelir ile elektrik tüketimi arasında istatistiksel olarak anlamlı bir ilişki olduğunu göstermektedir. Böylece, elektrik kaynaklı büyüme hipotezini desteklemektedir. Bu sonuç nedensellik testi ile de desteklenmektedir, çünkü elektrik tüketiminden reel gayri safi yurtiçi hasılaya doğru tek yönlü nedensellik ilişkisi gözlemlenmiştir. Bu nedenle, devlet yöneticileri ve politika yapıcılar için Zimbabwe ekonomisinin elektriğe bağlı olduğu öne sürülmektedir. Ancak, çevresel kalite için bir dezavantaj var. Elektrik tüketimindeki artış, karbondioksit emisyonunu artırdıkça. Zimbabwe enerji portföyünün daha temiz ve çevre dostu enerji kaynaklarına çeşitlendirilmesi ihtiyacı, daha temiz enerji tüketimi konusunda dünyaya duyduğu dünya bilinci göz önünde bulundurulması önerilir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Enerji tasarrufu hipotezi, enerji tüketimi, kombine eşbütünleşme, Dinamik nedensellik, Yenilenebilir enerji tüketimi, Yenilenemeyen enerji tüketimi, Ekonomik Büyüme, Maki Eşbütünleşme, Güney Afrika ve Pakistan. Doctor of Philosophy in Economics. Thesis (Ph.D.)--Eastern Mediterranean University, Faculty of Business and Economics, Dept. of Economics, 2019. Co-Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Leila Dagher, Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Mehmet Balcılar.

The quest for improved environmental quality through low-carbon emission has been explored in this study in the wake of the growing call for a transition to renewable energy use amidst widening trade relations between Turkey and the countries in the Caspian region including Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan. This study draws strength from the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs) and their impact by 2030. These SDGs encompass pertinent targets on responsible energy consumption (SDG-12), access to clean and affordable energy (SDG-7), and climate change action (SDG-13). Empirical evidence from the dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) technique corroborated by the fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) technique shows that a percent rise in renewable energy consumption level significantly abates carbon emission among these countries by about 0.26% while growing globalization vis-à-vis a percent increase in openness to trade significantly hampers environmental quality via inducement of carbon emission level by 0.32%. Extended findings from the Granger causality analysis corroborate the significance of the long-run coefficients with regard to the double-edged benefits of renewable energy consumption in enhancing both environmental quality and income levels through lower carbon emission and sustainable economic growth stimulations among the countries. The study confirmed the inverted U-shape relation between income growth and environmental deterioration, thus validating the EKC hypothesis for Turkey and the Caspian countries. This suggests that both blocs are still at the scale stage of their growth trajectory, where the emphasis is focused on increasing income level relative to environmental sustainability. As such, important policy measures were provided in the concluding section of this study.

The anthropogenic consequences of renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, economic growth, and air transport have been assessed enormously in the literature. However, given the complexities in many economies of the world today, it is important to reassess the ecological concerns of these factors in light of the Environmental Kuznets Curve framework. Therefore, this current study investigates the global assessment using data from World Bank Development database from 1995 to 2016. Evidence from the method employed, sys-GMM, revealed that the economic complexities index increases the carbon emission in low-income groups while it significantly decreases the carbon emission for upper-middle and highincome groups. For the combined group, the EKC hypothesis holds, and ECI significantly hampers carbon emissions. For the other variables, it is worthy of note that (1) economic growth contributes to the high carbon contents across the income group especially for low-income, upper-middle-income and high-income group; (2) the effects of air transport on carbon emission is positive for lower-middle-income and high-income group and negative for the upper-middle-income group; (3) the use of coal rents and energy use leads to high release of carbon contents across all the income groups; and (4) a significant increase in the utilization of energy leads to increase in carbon contents except for lower-income group, it leads to a decrease. From this empirical assessment, vital energy policy directions are suggested.

The United Nations Climate Conference 25, held in December 2019, reached a significant agreement against implementing the Paris agreement come 2020. Bound by the contract, 189 countries who are party to the deal agreed to constrain worldwide temperature to ascend to 1.5 degrees Celsius. To this end, the present study attempts to investigate the readiness of selected countries in the European Union to implement the agreement, which will better the quality of the global environment. In line with this, this study appraises the connection between economic growth, renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, on emissions in 11 countries in the European Union from 1990 to 2016. The study utilises the Pooled Mean Group-Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (PMG-ARDL) model estimator and Dumitrescu and Hurlin Panel Causality analysis to analyse the long-run and short-run impact and direction of causality among these factors, respectively. The long-run study's empirical results show a U-shaped Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) and a negative connection between renewable energy use and emissions in the EU-11 countries. In the short-run, non-renewable energy use worsens CO2 emissions while renewable energy use leads to a fall in emissions. Similarly, causality tests show a feedback mechanism between emissions and renewable energy use and between non-renewable energy and renewable use. Also, there is unidirectional causality from income to CO2 emissions, non-renewable energy use to CO2 emissions. The investigation recommends an expanded proportion of renewable energy sources in the EU countries' energy mix to cut down on emissions.

Environmental degradation caused by various human activities has been a subject of attention over the globe. There is a concern on how to maintain a clean environment and at the same time achieve optimum production of food and non-food products amidst global energy demand. To this end, this study examines the impact of agricultural development, energy use, and economic growth on CO2 emissions in the emerging seven countries that comprises China, India, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, Indonesia, and Turkey for the annual time frequency from 1990 to 2016. The study uses a battery of econometrics techniques for soundness of analysis the consist of pooled mean group autoregressive distributed lag methodology, dynamic ordinary least squares, and fully modified ordinary least squares as estimation techniques alongside Dumitrescu and Hurlin causality test for the direction of causality analysis. Empirical results revealed that value-added agriculture and economic growth are drivers of CO2 emission in the E7 countries, and the rise in renewable energy causes a reduction in CO2 emissions, while in the short run, economic growth has a positive impact on emissions in the focus countries. Causality analysis shows that there is a feedback causality between economic growth and emissions, between value-added agriculture and energy usage, between emission and value-added agriculture, and between economic growth and agricultural development. Furthermore, energy use does not cause emissions directly; it causes economic growth and value-added agriculture which causes emissions. This position aligns with the advocacy of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (UN-SDG) Targets 7 and 13 of clean energy access and mitigation of climate changes issues.

The emerging industrialized seven (E7) economies are not excluded from the global warming issues which is a major problem for most economies. The E7 member countries have partaken in policies to mitigate against global warming in terms of decoupling CO2 emission from economic growth trajectory in the highlighted economies. It is on this premise that the present study is motivated to consider the connection among economic growth, pollutant emissions, coal rent while accounting for the role of other co-variates such as CO2 damage and energy from a nuclear energy source, oil gas energy between 1990 and 2016 on an annual frequency. This study adopts the use of panel ordinary least squares alongside panel quantile regression to explore the coal rent-energy and environment nexus. The empirical result shows a positive and significant effect of both real GDP and coal rent on CO2 emissions. More precisely, a 1% increase in GDP growth increases pollution emission by 0.400% while for coal rent, an increase in coal consumption dampens environmental quality by 0.088% as reported by the panel regression which is resonated by the quantile regression estimations at different tails of the data. Nevertheless, we observe that 0.95 percentile GDP growth strongly contributes to environmental pollution while at the median tail i.e. 0.5 percentile renewable energy consumption dampens the adverse effect of environmental degradation. Additionally, renewable energy, on the other hand, was found a negative and significant impact on CO2 emissions in E7 countries as a 1% increase in renewable energy consumption improves environmental quality by 0.588% Moreover, the estimated results indicate that regulation of coal consumption through the rent in addition to the cost of carbon damage will further increase the CO2 emissions in E7 countries. This study implies that putting stringent regulations on coal consumption as it concerns the increasing cost of carbon damage will not be of help to environmental sustainability within the E7 economies. The adoption of renewable energy consumption, nuclear energy, oil energy will reduce CO2 emissions in E7 countries. Thus, suggesting a paradigm shift for low-carbon energy sources which are more environmentally friendly.

This study explores the interaction among coal consumption, pollutant emissions, and real income for South Africa in a multivariate setting. To achieve this objective, annual frequency data spanning from 1965 to 2017 is used for analysis. A series of econometrics tests were conducted ranging from stationarity and non-stationarity tests for unit root properties of the variables under consideration. Empirical evidence finds support for the inverted U-shaped pattern between energy consumption and environmental degradation in South Africa. The Toda-Yamamoto Granger causality test shows a feedback causality between economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions, as well as between GDP and coal consumption. All these highlighted findings have inherent environmental implications. Based on these outcomes, policy directions such as diversification of the South Africa energy mix to renewables and cleaner energy sources and also the adoption of carbon capturing and storage techniques were suggested to engender a cleaner and friendlier environment.