Renewable energy contribution to the energy supply: Is there convergence across countries?

Renewable energy deployment is arguably the best way to address the challenges of climate change. This paper investigates convergence in the contribution of renewable energies to the energy supply for a broad set of countries for the period 1990 to 2010. Using a nonlinear time-varying coefficients factor model and a pooled mean group estimator for dynamic heterogeneous panels, our empirical results mainly suggest divergence and dissimilar temporal patterns in the contribution of renewable energies to the energy supply. Only a small number of countries with significant and growing renewable energy sectors display convergence. Our results point to uneven efforts to develop sustainable energies across countries, indicating that greater international cooperation is required in order to push more sustainable development. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.