THE ROLE OF CARBON EMISSIONS TAXES AND CARBON GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS ON THE RENEWABLE ENERGY OUTPUT: EVIDENCE FROM SOUTH AFRICA

Abstract

Due to substantial environmental degradation caused by high carbon dioxide (CO2) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, sustainable energy production is a global necessity, and researchers must focus on this. Thus, the current study explores the effect of CO2 emissions taxes, CO2 emissions, GHG emissions, industrialization, and urbanization on the production of renewable energy (RE) in South Africa. From 1981 to 2020, this article draws statistics from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and World Development Indicators (WDI) databases. In addition, the autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL) was used to examine the relationship between the constructs. The results demonstrated that CO2 emissions taxes, CO2 emissions, GHG emissions, industrialization, and urbanization have a positive and statistically significant relationship with RE production in South Africa. Due to the country's significant CO and GHG emissions, this study assists regulators in establishing appropriate RE production laws.