Decomposing scale and technique effects of financial development and foreign direct investment on renewable energy consumption

This paper contributes to literature by divulging the nature of scale and technique effects on renewable energy consumption, considering foreign direct investment (FDI) and financial development as considerable factors of renewable energy demand. The data for 39 countries over the period of 2000–2019 is used for empirical analysis. In doing so, second generation methodological approaches are applied to decompose scale and technique effects. The empirical results show the presence of cointegration between the model parameters, in the presence of cross-sectional dependence and structural breaks. Further, financial development is positively linked with renewable energy consumption. Foreign direct investment and renewable energy demand are positively linked. Composition effect has negative effect on renewable energy consumption. Economic growth and fossil fuel consumption have positive impact on renewable energy consumption. Long run estimation results indicate that renewable energy-FDI and renewable energy-financial development associations are U-shaped. It indicates that the scale effects exerted by FDI and financial development are overridden by technique and composition effects, and hence, the demand for renewable energy and consequential renewable energy consumption rises with the progression of economic growth. Based on this, policy suggestions are provided for these nations to ascertain sustainable development through bringing forth transformations in the energy policies.