Analyzing the determinants of clean energy consumption in a sustainability strategy: evidence from EU-28 countries

The current global spirit for sustainable development has led to increased attention to reducing the use of conventional energy sources and managing the issue of climate change. Renewable (or clean) energy consumption is a key element of any country’s environmental quality and sustainable economic growth. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the impacts on clean energy consumption of common factors in pursuing a sustainability strategy, including environmental degradation (measured as carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions), clean energy technology, gross domestic product (GDP) growth, institutional quality, and globalization for a panel of European Union (EU) 28 countries in the period from 1995 to 2017. We employ two estimation techniques, continuous updating-fully modifying (CUP-FM) and continuous updating-bias correcting (CUP-BC). In addition, the study incorporates Driscoll-Kraay regression for a panel model to investigate the validity and reliability of long-term elasticities’ results. The findings of long-run analyses indicate that CO2 emissions, clean energy technology, GDP growth, and globalization positively impact clean energy consumption and institutional quality negatively impacts it. Finally, the results of causality testing indicate a unidirectional causal relationship between clean energy technology and clean energy consumption and a bidirectional association between institutional quality and clean energy consumption. The study’s outcomes have policy implications, especially regarding designing strategic choices to promote investment in clean energy technology to increase the use of clean energy sources and to overcome the issues of institutional quality in supporting clean energy consumption in the EU-28 countries.