Re-visiting the renewable energy – economic growth nexus: empirical evidence from African OPEC countries

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the dynamic relationship between renewable energy and economic growth in African OPEC member countries (Angola, Algeria and Nigeria). Design/methodology/approach – The fully modified ordinary least squares technique for heterogeneous cointegrated panels (Pedroni, 2000) is used to estimate the parameters of the model. Findings – The study revealed four main findings. First, there is a bidirectional causality between renewable energy and economic growth in the long and the short run. Second, a bidirectional causality exists between non-renewable energy and economic growth in the short and long run. Third, a bidirectional causality exists between CO2 emissions and economic growth. Fourth, a unidirectional causality was also found between CO2 emissions and non-renewable energy consumption with the direction of causality stemming from the consumption of non-renewable energy to CO2 emissions. Practical implications – Because renewable consumption enhances growth, OPEC-member Africa countries should encourage investment in modern renewable sources that has high conversion efficiency such as solar, wind and hydro to strengthen their response to mitigating the impacts of climate change. Originality/value – This study applies multiple methods to analyze the relationship between renewable energy and economic growth in African OPEC countries.