Exploring the link between green energy, CO2 emissions, exchange rate and economic growth: Perspective from emerging South Asian countries

This paper investigates the nexus between renewable energy use, CO2 emissions, exchange rate, and economic development within emerging South Asian nations, namely Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, employing the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) framework. It examines annual data spanning from 1990 to 2019, examining key indicators of renewable energy consumption, CO2 emissions, exchange rate, and economic development. The ARDL bounds test results demonstrate the existence of co-integration among the variables in the long run. The empirical result finds that the renewable energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and exchange rate have a significant impact on economic growth in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka in the long run. In India no significant relationship found in the long run. In short run assessment, Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka also found same relationship with economic growth and renewable energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and exchange rate. Interestingly, In Pakistan no significant relationship has found in short run estimation analysis. Furthermore, study tried to determine the causality direction by using the Toda Yamamoto granger causality approach, which reveals bidirectional causation between exchange rate and CO2 emission in India. In Pakistan, study also found bi-directional causality among the variables renewable energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and economic growth. Finally, this paper emphasizes developing the policy as well as making a concrete decision regarding the renewable energy consumption, CO2 emissions, exchange rate, and economic development for ensuring sustainable economic growth in South Asian region. Future research could extend this work by including different dimensional data, additional countries, or using alternative or supplementary modeling techniques. © 2023. The Author(s).