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Climate change and natural resource depletion have reinvigorated the relevance of technical advancements in energy efficiency, which has been emphasized by the Paris Climate Accord that includes a framework for carbon neutrality. In that effort, the governments have been allocating a considerable amount of budget shares to research and development relating to energy efficiency and green energy. Thus, this study primarily examines the impact and effectiveness of research and development on energy efficiency and energy sources (renewables and fossil fuels) on CO2 emissions in the European region using a novel Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR). Our data cover annual observations of 9 EU countries, including Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Sweden, based on the period 1990–2021. Our empirical findings confirm that the U-shaped Environmental Kuznets Curve occurs across all quantiles at 1% significance levels. The findings reveal that energy consumption increases CO2 emissions across the lower to higher quantiles. We discover that (i) R&D on renewable energy cuts CO2 emissions just at the median and higher quantiles, (ii) R&D on Fossil Fuels decreases CO2 emissions just at the lower quantile, and (iii) R&D on Energy efficiency lowers CO2 emissions at both the median and higher quantiles. Therefore, empirical findings suggest that policymakers should maintain their incentives for energy efficiency R&D and renewable R&D to achieve sustainable development goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The enormous ensembles of energy resources have elevated Sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) to a prominent position in the world energy scene as a leading region in forming a sustainable energy future. However, over half of the population in the region lives without electricity and less than 20% of the population has access to clean fuels. The excessive reliance on fossil fuels such as coal, kerosene, and solid biomass has implications for environmental outcomes in SSA. Nevertheless, the environmental impact of energy poverty from the SSA perspective remains an under‐explored terrain in the research landscape. In this context, to address the pressing challenges of energy poverty and environmental sustainability, this study aims to explore the threat energy poverty poses on the ecological footprints, focusing on “land‐use, carbon footprint, forestry resources, and fishing ground” across 35 SSA countries using disaggregated data covering the period 2000 and 2021. This study employs the novel Method of the Moments Quantile Regression following the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology model as the reference theoretical and analytical framework. The findings disclose heterogeneous effects of rural and urban energy poverty on ecological footprint items. When comparing the magnitudes, we found that rural energy poverty has a more detrimental impact on land‐use than urban energy poverty. Energy poverty is found to have no reliable power to explain the variation in carbon footprint and fishing ground. In the meantime, urban energy poverty exerts a positive effect on forestry resource sustainability. Surprisingly, population density is found to have a significant and desirable impact on land‐use. Based on the obtained results, numerous policy suggestions have been discussed along with some prospects for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increase in the combustion of fossil fuels as a means of generating energy has resulted in adverse ecological ramifications. Therefore, to achieve environmental sustainability goals, it is essential to focus on reducing carbon emissions by conserving natural resources and adopting low‐carbon technologies. Renewable electricity generation, the advancement of environment‐related technologies, and the widespread adoption of these technologies have the potential to reduce carbon emissions and drive the shift towards a more sustainable future. Nevertheless, the impact of these initiatives in the European Union (EU) on promoting these solutions and reducing emissions is still ambiguous. Therefore, this paper aims to explore how renewable electricity generation, development of environment‐related technologies, and diffusion of environment‐related technologies limit CO2 emission in 14 selected EU countries. To achieve this goal, our study span covered the period of 1990–2019 and employed Panel Vector Autoregressive (PVAR) based impulse function to capture responses to CO2. The empirical results reveal that CO2 is positively influenced by economic growth and electricity consumption. The empirical findings indicate that renewable electricity generation, development of environment‐related technologies, and diffusion of environment‐related technologies have negative impacts on CO2 levels, implying that they could mitigate CO2 levels in 14 EU countries. The above empirical findings suggest that EU countries should invest more in the R&D, diffusion, and implementation of climate‐related technological advances in renewable energy generation. Policymakers should take action to develop market‐based environmental regulatory measures, cut fossil fuel subsidies, and boost renewable energy and climate change advances. To attain environmental sustainability and lower carbon dioxide emissions, it is crucial to implement such policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The relationship between public expenditure and revenue that determines the budget balance in the explanation of budget deficits is very important. This study aimed to examine the association between public spending and income in Turkey. Methodology: This article applies the continuous wavelet transform method (CWT) to study the relationship between government revenues and expenditures in Turkey. The study, which covers the period 2006-2020, consists of monthly data. The following four CWT tools were used in the analysis: Wavelet Power Spectrum, Cross Wavelet Power, Wavelet Coherence, and Phase Difference. Results: The results of the study, controlling taxes rather than expenditures, play a key role in reducing fiscal deficits in Turkey in the short term. It is revealed that the dynamics of the budget balance in the medium term can be explained by the spend-tax hypothesis and that the tax burden can be alleviated by spending cuts. In the long term, results were obtained that support the spend-tax hypothesis. Conclusion: The paper reveals that taxes play an important role in controlling budget deficits in the short run. It turns out that the dynamics of the budget balance can be explained in the medium term by expenditure cuts and then the tax burden can be alleviated. In the long run, implementing fiscal policies based on public spending rather than taxation will be more effective against budget deficits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]