Renewable energy and poverty–environment nexus in developing countries

Poverty is not only the primary attribute of most developing countries, but also expected to contribute to environmental degradation. With the recent rapid, but yet to be comprehensively developed renewable energy, this study examines the dynamic impact of renewable energy in mitigating the potential adverse effect of poverty on environmental destruction using econometric approaches for developing countries. Empirical results from GMM estimator show that over the period of 2001 and 2014, renewable energy tends to minimize the extent of environmental destruction due to poverty in the full sample of developing countries. The results of sub-samples of several income groups also sharing the same conclusion that environmental degradation increases with increases in poverty, but mitigated with more consumption of renewable energy. Thus, significant expansion and consumption of renewable energy could contribute to reduction in poverty and sustain the environmental quality.