The impact of renewable energy and agriculture on carbon dioxide emissions: Investigating the environmental Kuznets curve in four selected ASEAN countries

This study is the first attempt to explore the impact of per capita renewable energy consumption and agricultural value added on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in four selected countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN-4: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand) from 1970 to 2013. By examining the existence of the environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis, our results of long-run estimates do not support the inverted U-shape EKC in the selected countries. The estimates indicate that increasing renewable energy and agriculture decreases CO2 emissions, while non-renewable energy is positively correlated to emissions. Short-run Granger causal relationships exist from non-renewable energy to emissions and to agriculture, from economic growth to agriculture, and from agriculture to renewable energy directly. Long-run causalities indicate the existence of feedback causalities between emissions, renewable energy and non-renewable energy. Our policy implication is that developing sustainable agriculture can promote renewable energy and reduce emissions. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.