The impact of renewable energy and urbanization on CO2 emissions in Europe-Spatio-temporal approach

Renewable energy use and urbanization level do have an impact on the air quality that can be expressed by the CO2 emissions. However, it is not evident whether they positively or negatively influence the environment. The logical thinking suggests that generating energy from renewable energy sources shall benefit the air quality. However, none of the energy sources, even those renewable ones, create zero environmental impact. The same applies to the urbanization level as a theoretical factor that should cause more CO2 emissions. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to assess what is the impact of renewable energy use and urbanization level on the CO2 emissions in Europe from 1995 to 2018. Applying a spatio-temporal approach, the results of this paper indicate that the levels of CO2 emissions and urbanization declined towards the East and rose towards the North, whereas the share of renewable energy use increased towards the North. The values of the share of renewable energy use and urbanization increased over time, while the CO2 emissions level had a faster than linear decrease over the years. The analysis proved that an increase in the share of renewable energy use leads to less CO2 emissions, while an increase in the urbanization level harms the air quality.