Determining the Implications of Clean Energy Policy on Co2 Emissions Control –Investigating the Rectangular Edges of Carbon Emissions with a Panel IV

We investigate the implications of renewable energy policy on the Co2 emissions rate with a special focus on the four leading Co2 emitting economies across the globe: China, the USA, India, and Russia; given there aggregate share contributions of about 57% to the total World Co2 emission in 2014. The study utilises a panel instrumental variable estimator for an obvious endogeneity issues in our model to examine the impact of renewable energy policy on the Co2 emissions rate (after the usage of the Pooled OLS regression as our model search criteria). Our empirical result suggests that renewable energy policy reduces the Co2 emissions rates in the sample economies. On average, renewable energy policy declines the Co2 emission by 0.97 percentage points. The outcome of our empirical work shows that energy prices and demographic factors play significant roles in determining the rate of Co2 emissions in our sample economies. Our empirical outcome is robust to various specification tests carried out. A crucial policy implication of this study is that our findings suggest external validation, given the significant contributions of the four economies in our sample to the total global Co2 emission rate. This study recommends that for the Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs] to be achieved, especially goal number 7, a joint effort is crucial for the four sample economies to foster a common front in addressing the climate change problem in the form of a uniform renewable energy policy