Heterogeneous impacts of renewable energy and environmental patents on CO2 emission - Evidence from the BRIICS

The study explores the impacts of renewable energy, environmental patents, economic growth and other variables on the CO2 emission per capita from 2000 to 2013 for the BRIICS countries. Using both the panel OLS methods and panel quantile regression method, we find that the effects of the determinant variables are heterogeneous across quantiles. Specifically, renewable energy supply reduces CO2 emissions per capita, with the strongest effect at the 95th quantile. Development of environmental patents accelerates carbon emissions per capita, but only significantly affects the CO2 emissions per capita at the upper tail of the conditional distribution. GDP per capita enhances CO2 emissions per capita, with the most substantial effect in the 5th quantile. Exports increase carbon emissions per capita with an asymmetric inverted U-sharped impact. Foreign direct investment reduces carbon emissions per capita, but only significantly influences the carbon emissions per capita at the medium and upper of the conditional distribution. Domestic credit to private sectors raises carbon emissions per capita with gradually decreasing impacts along all quantiles. We propose several policy recommendations based on the results.