Renewable Energy - Economic Growth Nexus in South Africa: Linear, Nonlinear or Non-existent?

Authors

  • Bothwell Nyoni Innoventon and the Downstream Chemicals Technology Station, Nelson Mandela University
  • Andrew Phiri Department of Economics, Faculty of Business and Economic Studies, Nelson Mandela University

Abstract

With escalating fears of climate change reaching irreversible levels, much emphasis has been recently placed on shifting to renewable sources of energy in supporting future economic livelihood. Focusing on South Africa, as Africa's largest energy consumer and producer, our study investigates the short-run and long-run effects of renewable energy on economic growth using linear and nonlinear autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) models. Working with data availability, our empirical analysis is carried out over the period of 1991 to 2016, and our results unanimously fail to confirm any linear or nonlinear cointegration effects of the consumption and production of renewable energy on South African economic growth. We view the absence of cointergation relations as an indication of inefficient usage of renewable energy in supporting sustainable growth in South Africa and hence advise policymakers to accelerate the establishment of necessary renewable infrastructure in supporting future energy requirements.Keywords: Renewable energy; economic growth; ARDL; nonlinear ARDL; South Africa; Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA).JEL Classifications: C13; C32; C52; Q43DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijeep.7706

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Downloads

Published

2020-10-10

How to Cite

Nyoni, B., & Phiri, A. (2020). Renewable Energy - Economic Growth Nexus in South Africa: Linear, Nonlinear or Non-existent?. International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, 10(6), 635–644. Retrieved from https://econjournals.com.tr/index.php/ijeep/article/view/7706

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 6 (2020)

Section

Articles

License

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously , that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, will not be published elsewhere in the same form, without the written consent of the Publisher. The Editors reserve the right to edit or otherwise alter all contributions, but authors will receive proofs for approval before publication.