The impacts of non-renewable and renewable energy on CO2 emissions in Turkey

As a result of great increases in CO2 emissions in the last few decades, many papers have examined the relationship between renewable energy and CO2 emissions in the energy economics literature, because as a clean energy source, renewable energy can reduce CO2 emissions and solve environmental problems stemming from increases in CO2 emissions. When one analyses these papers, he/she will observe that they employ fixed parameter estimation methods, and time-varying effects of non-renewable and renewable energy consumption/production on greenhouse gas emissions are ignored. In order to fulfil this gap in the literature, this paper examines the effects of non-renewable and renewable energy on CO2 emissions in Turkey over the period 1970–2013 by employing fixed parameter and time-varying parameter estimation methods. Estimation methods reveal that CO2 emissions are positively related to non-renewable energy and renewable energy in Turkey. Since policy makers expect renewable energy to decrease CO2 emissions, this paper argues that renewable energy is not able to satisfy the expectations of policy makers though fewer CO2 emissions arise through production of electricity using renewable sources. In conclusion, the paper argues that policy makers should implement long-term energy policies in Turkey.