Wind energy, industrial-economic development and CO2 emissions nexus: Do droughts matter?

This study empirically explored the nexus of wind energy (with regards to the effect of the drought), industrial -economic development, and emitted CO2 in 41 World's top countries in wind energy consumption from 1997 to 2018. Cross-sectional augmented distributed lag estimators (CS-DL, CS-ARDL, CCE-P) and newly updated esti-mation packages to effectively assess the relationships between variables. Our results are the following: First, severe droughts were not a significant matter in wind energy, and consuming wind energy reasonably con-tributes to reducing emitted CO2, while industrial and economic development positively promotes CO2 emissions in sampled countries. Second, industrial development significantly promotes economic growth, while wind en-ergy use has an insignificant positive effect on economic growth. Moreover, wind energy negatively affects in-dustrial development. Third, two-way directional causal relationships were noted between CO2 and other covariates, this hypothesis was also noted between industrial development and economic growth and wind energy use. We, therefore, suggested policy implications to reduce CO2 across the globe and country-specific and consider the positive effect of wind energy on growth.

Automated summary

This study empirically explores the relationship between wind energy consumption, industrial-economic development, and CO2 emissions in the top 41 countries from 1997 to 2018. The results show that severe droughts are not a significant concern for wind energy, and utilizing wind energy helps reduce CO2 emissions. However, industrial and economic development is positively associated with CO2 emissions in the sampled countries. Additionally, the study finds that while industrial development promotes economic growth, wind energy use has an insignificant positive effect on economic growth and a negative impact on industrial development. The study also identifies two-way causal relationships between CO2 and other variables, as well as between industrial development and economic growth and wind energy use.