What role of renewable and non-renewable electricity consumption and output is needed to initially mitigate CO2 emissions in MENA region?

This study attempts to explore the causal relationship between renewable and non-renewable electricity consumption, output and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions for 10 Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries over the period of 1980-2009. The results from panel Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) and Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) show that renewable and non-renewable electricity consumption add in CO2 emissions while output (real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita) exhibits an inverted U-shaped relationship with CO2 emissions i.e. the environment Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis is validated. The short-run dynamics indicate the unidirectional causality running from renewable and non-renewable electricity consumption and output to CO2 emissions. In the long-run, there appears to be a bidirectional causality between electricity consumption (renewable and non-renewable) and CO2 emissions. The findings suggest that future reductions in CO2 emissions might be achieved at the cost of economic growth. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.