The role of renewable energy on environmental pollution in Turkey: An empirical analysis in context of Environmental Kuznets Curve

As a result of the rapidly growing population, urbanization and the development of technology, industry and transportation throughout the world, the increase in energy requirements has led to a rapid increase in energy consumption. Increasing energy consumption has caused many environmental problems at the global level. For this reason, many countries, including Turkey, especially developed countries, have started to focus on renewable energy sources. The main aim of this thesis is to analyze the impact of renewable energy sources on environmental pollution in Turkey. In addition, this study also allows the validity of the ÇKE hypothesis in Turkey to be tested. In the study, two different econometric models were developed using carbon dioxide emissions, per capita income, square per capita income, renewable energy consumption, oil prices and coal consumption as indicators of non-renewable energy sources. In the first phase of the study, the Ng-Perron unit root test was applied to determine the degree of stasis of variables. According to the results of the unit root test applied, it was found that all series used in the study became stationary when the first differences were received. As a result of the unit root test, it was considered appropriate to use the ARDL approach to determine the long-term relationship between variables in the study, and the co-integration relationship was determined by the ARDL approach. At the next stage, long-term coefficients were estimated using the ARDL method. As a result of the results obtained, it was found that the increase in renewable energy consumption in Turkey causes a reducing effect on environmental pollution. Furthermore, the validity of the ÇKE hypothesis has been proven in Turkey. It is aimed to make an important contribution to the literature with this thesis work.