Hanadi Taher

Most of the recent environmental and economic studies focus on the influence of renewable energy consumption and effective government expenditure respecting global climate change in leading sustainable economic growth. The empirical studies showed variation in the relationship between these variables. Based on the Keynesian economic growth framework, this study aims to investigate the impact of government expenditure, renewable energy consumption, and carbon dioxide emissions on the sustainable economic growth of Lebanon. The study used the ordinary least square method to test the short- and long-run relationship between the model variables by employing the Autoregressive Distributed Lag Stationarity estimation. The research data are gathered from the World Development Indicators annually from 1990 to 2022. The empirical findings showed that all variables are stationary at first difference except for carbon dioxide emissions. A long-term relationship between the dependent and independent variables was shown by the model test simulation employing the bound test. The model test for model residuals showed no heteroscedasticity based on the White test. The residuals are normally distributed by applying the Shapiro-Wilk test, and the model is stable with no structural break at the period. According to the study results, government spending has a robust reverse relation with sustainable economic growth and positive significant results for both renewable energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. The study findings are consistent with some literature sources and raise attention to monitoring the nature of government spending and boosting green energy sources in an economy.

This study considers the impacts of financial development and the consumption of renewable energy in Lebanon for the period 1990–2021, employing the Environmental Kuznets Curve. The financial sector in Lebanon is considered a major engine in the economic development. Green energy sources and environmental protection are taking higher importance nowadays with the increase of implications for climate change and global warming worldwide. This paper examines the Environmental Kuznets Curve’s presence and implications for Lebanon’s financial development and renewable energy consumption. The econometric model used annual data from the World Development Indicators. Utilizing the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) technique, both near- and long-term relationships were estimated. The findings support the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis and show that energy consumption and real income have a statistically significant beneficial effect on carbon emissions and that their square has a statistically significant negative impact on carbon emissions over the long and short term. The results show variations in signs for financial development between the short and long term and stable results for renewable energy with negative signs in both terms. These results show the importance of further research on the influence of financial development and green energy consumption on EKC. Therefore, policymakers need to pay more attention to these variables for a sustainable economy that is facing the effects of climate change.