Empirical analysis of renewable energy and economic growth relationship: A study of Turkey and D-8 countries

Today, the demand for energy is growing exponentially. In the global world, countries and various powers focus on various challenges for this strategic input. This struggle with energy acquisition plays a vital role in shaping world politics. Although fossil fuels are widely used to meet the increasing energy demand, they hurt limited environmental resources. The interest in renewable energy sources is increasing day by day. Even though these sources have certain costs, and these costs are continuously decreasing. Turkey is also a member of D-8 countries that still meet the demand for energy with fossil fuels. In recent years, the focus on clean energy sources in the climate summits has reached a consensus in this group of countries.In this thesis, the relationship between renewable energy use and economic growth is examined for D-8 countries, including Turkey using data for the 1980- 2015 period. Two models were established for the analysis. According to the analysis results, In model 1, GDP and renewable energy are moving together in the long run, but there is no causal relationship between them. In model 2, there is a long-term relationship between renewable energy and its determinant variables (CO2, GDP, ENU, UPO, ENI, NRE). On the other hand, no causal relationship between GDP and renewable energy could be determined. Keywords: Energy, Renewable Energy, Economic Growth, Turkish Economy, D-8 Countries