Contribution of Renewable Energy Consumption to CO 2 Emission Mitigation: A Comparative Analysis from a Global Geographic Perspective

Renewable energy consumption (REC) has an important significance in mitigating CO 2 emissions. However, currently, few scientists have analyzed the underlying impact of REC from a global geographic perspective. Thus, here, we divide the world into seven regions to study this impact during the period 1971–2016 using the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI). These regions were East Asia and the Pacific (EAP), Europe and Central Asia (ECA), Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), Middle East and North Africa (MENA), North America (NA), South Asia (SA), and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The results showed that ECA had the most obviously mitigating effect of −10.13%, followed by NA and MENA (−3.91% and −3.87%, respectively). Inversely, EAP had the largest driving effect of 4.12%, followed by SA (3.43%) and the others. Globally, REC had an overall mitigating contribution of −11.04% to total CO 2 change. These results indicate that it is still important to exploit and utilize renewable energy, especially in presently developing or underdeveloped countries. Moreover, for some countries at a certain stage, their REC effects were negative, but, concurrently, their energy intensity effects were positive. These results show that some developing countries recently reduced carbon emissions only by extensively using renewable energy, not by enhancing energy-use efficiency. Finally, some policy implications for reducing CO 2 in different countries are recommended.