Achieving carbon neutrality and SDGs: assessing roles of solar energy, government stability, and population aging in greenhouse gas emissions

In recent years, solar energy (SOE) has become a popular source of green energy that can stimulate energy transition, reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHGE), and mitigate global warming. In addition, population aging and government stability can also influence GHGE levels. However, there is a lack of research studies on the environmental impacts of SOE and population aging on GHGE in top emitters. Therefore, this research aims to unveil the heterogeneous effects of SOE, population aging, and government stability on GHGE in top emitters from 1992 to 2020. This study employed the Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MM-QR) because it can focus on the entire distribution of GHGE disclosing heterogeneous impacts of variables on GHGE. The outcomes of the study disclosed that population aging decreases the GHGE across all quantiles. However, government stability exacerbates GHGE with a slightly decreasing trend across all percentiles. SOE, however, reduces the GHGE only at the higher quantiles, while on lower quantiles, it is positively linked with the GHGE. It shows the usefulness of SOE in reducing GHGE in countries with higher emissions. Economic growth has a positive impact on GHGE, with this impact intensifying from lower to upper percentiles. This indicates that economic development exacerbates environmental deterioration, and therefore, higher GHGE and increased development are closely linked. The study did not notice any significant impact of financial globalization on GHGE. Based on the findings, a policy framework is proposed to reduce GHGE for achieving carbon neutrality and SDGs.

Dergi

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND WORLD ECOLOGY

Yıl

2025

Cilt

32

Sayı

2

Sayfa

127-141

ISSN

1350-4509

eISSN

1745-2627

DOI

10.1080/13504509.2024.2414377

WoS UID

WOS:001330348200001