Net billing of renewable energy electricity is a new regulation in Palestinian territories. Net billing system includes several implementation scenarios, sale of the entire production, self-consumption with the possibility of exporting energy to the grid, and self-consumption with the permission to store and export electricity. The household sector is considered final consumer in the VAT system, this system allows for double taxation, whether on equipment or purchased electricity. This research aims to conduct an analytical comparison between the VAT revenues of the net billing scenarios for government in residential sector. The possibility of utilizing the surplus VAT to incentivize renewable energy in household sector is examined. A five years’ period is considered in the analysis, since regulations are changing from time to time, to determine the difference in VAT revenues and potential of incentives. The carried-out analysis shows that there is a tangible difference in VAT revenues in favor of the government between the various cases of net billing. It is recommended to utilize the difference in VAT revenues, to incentivize Photovoltaic investments in the household sector. In the most optimistic scenario, considering 10% subsidy, around 60 MW was expected to benefit from the incentives. Based on the obtained results, an incentive policy for the household sector was recommended, taking advantage of differences in value added tax. The proposed incentives in this study provide a basis for decision-makers to develop a sustainable national renewable energy policy to stimulate investment in renewable energy in the residential sector.
The shift to renewable energy presents a rare opportunity for sustainable improvement of socio-economic outcomes for women and reduction of gender inequality while limiting the negative impacts of climate change especially in developing countries. This study analyses the effects of renewable energy consumption on gender inequality using robust fixed effects panel regression methodology, the UNDP’s Gender Inequality Index and World Bank’s development indicators for the period (2002-2021). The analysis explores both linear and non-linear effects and the results reveal that renewable energy consumption has a positive relationship with gender inequalities in the selected Southern African countries. The positive coefficient suggests that the benefits of the clean energy shift are unevenly distributed because higher gender inequality Index values indicate increased gender inequality. However, this effect diminishes as clean energy consumption increases. These results are contrary to expectations that energy transitions provide socio-economic pathways for inclusive economic development. Which suggests that that renewable energy expansion may be contextual and reinforce existing gender inequalities in some regions. Based on the findings, there is urgent need for the prioritisation of gender sensitive renewable energy expansion and full participation of women in energy initiatives as Southern African nations move towards clean energy consumption.
This paper reexamines the relationship between oil prices and U.S. industrial production using monthly data from January 1974 to August 2025. We document three empirical patterns. First, the full-sample correlation between oil price changes and industrial production growth is positive, contrary to the conventional view. Second, this masks substantial time variation: the correlation is negative before the mid-1980s but mostly positive thereafter. Third, positive co-movement becomes substantially stronger during recessions. Using a structural vector autoregression (SVAR) that decomposes oil price movements into supply, global demand, and oil-specific demand shocks, we examine the forecast error variance decomposition (FEVD) of the real price of oil. The full-sample baseline shows oil prices are dominated by oil-specific demand shocks, with global demand shocks playing a modest role. In contrast, state-dependent results reveal that during recessions, global demand shocks account for a substantially larger share of oil price forecast error variance. Because global demand shocks move oil prices and output together, this shift explains why positive co-movement is stronger during recessions. Rolling estimation further shows that the long-run shift from negative to positive co-movement reflects changes in the transmission of oil shocks rather than a secular increase in the importance of global demand shocks.
Energy firms in developing countries, such as those in Nigeria, are concerned about the long-term impacts of their actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, meet stakeholder demands and combat the effects of climate change. Consequently, there is an increasing concern about how these efforts will affect their bottom line. This paper examined the relationship between carbon reporting practices and the financial performance of quoted Nigerian oil and gas firms (listed on the Nigerian Exchange Group), using stakeholder theory as the foundation of the research methodology. Data for this study consisted of secondary data, specifically all available data collected from 10 publicly traded oil and gas firms from 2014 to 2023, obtained through the review of Annual Reports and Sustainability Reports issued by the Nigerian Exchange Group. Descriptive statistics and Panel Ordinary Least Squares Regression were used to evaluate the data and determine whether a relationship existed. The results indicate a statistically significant, positive relationship between carbon emissions and both earnings per share and stock price. These findings indicate that investors are not environmentally conscious and will be attracted to investments in companies that produce high levels of carbon-based performance. However, the results also demonstrate that the relationship between carbon emissions and return on capital employed is positive but statistically insignificant. Moreover, the findings demonstrate the strategic importance of carbon accounting for firms operating in carbon-intensive industries and conclude that firms should invest in transparent, sustainability-based reporting to ensure that environmental responsibility (climate action) aligns with long-term financial performance.
This study investigates whether unemployment affects the share of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions attributable to light commercial vehicles (LCV) in Greece over the period 2000–2023. While existing studies have primarily focused on economic growth, fuel prices, and environmental regulations as determinants of transport emissions, the role of labour market conditions has received little attention. Using annual data, the analysis employs ordinary least squares (OLS), a dynamic specification with a lagged dependent variable, and an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) framework. The baseline model indicates no statistically significant relationship between unemployment and LCV emission share. However, once dynamic adjustment is considered, unemployment emerges as a significant determinant of LCV emission intensity. The ARDL bounds test further provides evidence of a stable long-run relationship between the variables. The results suggest that higher unemployment is associated with a larger contribution of LCV emissions to total road transport emissions, potentially reflecting reduced economic growth, slower fleet renewal, and prolonged use of older vehicles. The findings indicate that labour-market shocks can impact the decarbonization of the transport sector by affecting commercial vehicle replacement decisions. Furthermore, labour market conditions may have enduring environmental impacts.
This paper employs the Quantile VAR(QVAR) spillover approach to explore the spillover connectedness between global clean and dirty energy with local energy indices of the largest oil exporting and importing states, namely KSA, Canada, the US, Russia, China, and India. The study reports robust connectedness in the case of both clean and dirty energy; that is, 96.20% at the bearish quantile, 82.71% at the middle quantile, and 96.83% at the bullish quantile in the case of the clean energy index. Similarly, for dirty energy, we found 96.24% at the bearish quantile, 82.07% at the middle quantile, and 96.98% at the higher quantile. The GPRD and the energy sectors of Saudi Arabia, China, India, and the United States are net recipients of spillover effects, whereas the clean, dirty, global, and Canadian energy indices serve as net transmitters. OVX and Russian energy have a dual function, alternating between transmission and reception over quantiles. Moreover, in the median quantile of the clean energy framework, the Canadian and Russian energy sectors had the lowest net transmission rates (4.64% and 2.73%, respectively), whereas clean energy (44.34%) and global energy (43.5%) revealed the most significant spillover impacts. From an investor's viewpoint, the energy sectors in the US and India have the weakest spillover effects at the median quantile, hence adding minimally to systemic risk. Regulators should oversee clean and global energy markets as prelude to potential issues and implement green transition policies incrementally, given that disturbances in these markets affect the entire system, while the weakly transmitting Canadian and Russian energy sectors present less risk of contagion.
The study examines the impact of carbon emissions on food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa. A panel data of selected sub-Saharan countries was used. The span is from 2000-2021. To achieve the objective of the study, carbon emissions index was created and PARDL model was employed. The results show that an increase carbon emission index has a positive impact of food insecurity. The emissions at farmgate also showed a positive impact on the rate of food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa. For emissions from agrifood systems, the results showed that an increase in emissions from agrifood systems lead to a rise in the rate of malnutrition. The study brings to light the effect of carbon emissions on food insecurity by creating an index. This approach offers policy makers opportunity to understand the cumulative impact of emissions on food insecurity.
Brazil, a large tropical emerging economy, faces the dual challenge of expanding electricity access and planning capacity under a warming climate. We estimate long-run temperature elasticities of residential and commercial electricity demand in Brazil using monthly data from June 2006 to February 2025 within a vector error-correction (VECM) framework. Replacing the income proxy originally employed in earlier work (the PNADC real income mass) with the Brazilian Central Bank’s monthly economic activity index (IBC-Br) resolves a multicollinearity problem between income and temperature that had previously biased the estimated temperature effect toward zero. Our preferred estimates yield a residential temperature elasticity of 1.21 (s.e. 0.24) and a commercial temperature elasticity of 2.76 (s.e. 0.60), both statistically significant at the 1% level. Applied to the sample mean temperature of 25.3C, these elasticities imply that a permanent 1C increase in mean temperature raises residential and commercial electricity consumption by approximately 4.8% and 10.9%, respectively, in the long run. Under a 1.5C warming reference scenario (a conservative anchor relative to IPCC AR6 projections for South America by mid-century), the implied demand increases are 7.2% and 16.4%. These results carry direct implications for long-horizon capacity planning, tariff design, energy efficiency standards, and climate adaptation policy in a developing-country context. Our findings contribute to the broader literature on climate-sensitive energy demand in tropical emerging economies and support the design of sustainable electricity pathways aligned with SDG 7 (Affordable and clean energy) and SDG 13 (Climate action).
This study examines the causal relationship between financial development and renewable energy consumption in South Africa using annual data from 1990-2024. The analysis employs a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) Granger causality framework to distinguish between short-run dynamics and long-run equilibrium relationships. Unit root tests confirm that the variables are integrated of order one, while the Johansen cointegration test indicates the existence of a long-run relationship among renewable energy consumption, financial development, economic growth, inflation, and capital formation. The VECM Granger-causality results reveal strong long-run unidirectional causality running from financial development, economic growth, inflation, and capital formation to renewable energy consumption. In the short run, credit extension and economic growth are found to Granger-cause renewable energy consumption. The findings highlight the importance of financial sector development in facilitating renewable energy expansion. Strengthening financial systems may therefore support South Africa’s transition toward a more sustainable energy system.
This study examines the joint influence of environmental factors and U.S. financial markets on the returns of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), shedding light on sustainability-driven crypto valuation. The analysis integrates CO₂ emissions, green innovations, ESG scores and financial indicators, including the S&P 500, NASDAQ, Dow Jones, gold and oil prices, using monthly data from January 2019 to February 2025. A robust econometric framework is employed to assess both the long-term cointegration and the short-term sensitivities of BTC and ETH returns. The findings suggest that BTC exhibits a strong positive correlation with environmental innovations and ESG scores, indicating an alignment with investors focused on sustainability. In contrast, ETH exhibits weaker sensitivity to environmental factors despite its adoption of a more energy-efficient Proof-of-Stake mechanism. Both cryptocurrencies respond positively to gold and oil prices, reinforcing their potential as alternative hedging assets. By jointly evaluating environmental and financial drivers, this study contributes to the fields of sustainable finance and digital asset research, bridging the gap between ESG studies and cryptocurrency market analysis.
The interrelation between economic growth and financial development has fuelled a debate in the area of economics. The financial development of countries is driven by the concert action of their governments regarding policy making, creating favourable financial infrastructure, and taking strategic initiatives for building a conducive financial sector. This study attempts to empirically assess the association between financial development and long-run growth in the context of Saudi Arabia. It uses select variables measured by the World Bank to predict economic growth and financial development. Furthermore, it analyses the link between financial development and economic growth in Saudi Arabia from 1980 to 2020, spanning a 40-year period. It uses a five-variable ARDL model using a supply-led approach. The Granger's test of causality and the VECM propose a unidirectional relationship flowing from the proxy of financial development to economic growth. This study's findings support the idea that financial development leads to economic growth in Saudi Arabia.
This study investigates the influence of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) on sustainable development within the framework of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis in the context of European Economic Area (EEA) countries. Specifically, it evaluates how ICT integration into the energy sector contributes to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The analysis focuses on 13 EEA countries over the period 2005–2024 and employs a Panel Vector Autoregression (Panel-VAR) model. The central hypothesis is that ICT adoption can serve as a pivotal driver of sustainability, not only by enhancing energy efficiency but also by fostering digital innovation and reducing environmental degradation. The empirical results confirm the existence of a modified EKC in the EEA context and show that ICT has a positive, statistically significant long-run impact on sustainability indicators. In particular, ICT supports the development of smart energy systems that enable more efficient production, consumption, and storage of energy, thereby reducing CO₂ emissions. This paper makes a novel contribution by integrating digital transformation into the EKC framework and highlighting bidirectional relationships between ICT, the energy transition, and sustainable development. The findings offer valuable policy implications, suggesting that investments in digital infrastructure and energy innovation can play a crucial role in achieving long-term sustainability objectives across the EEA region.
Energy intensity (EI) is a crucial metric for assessing sustainable economic performance, but its understanding and effectiveness remain subject to discussion. In the context of South Africa's Water–Energy–Food (WEF) nexus, this study empirically investigates the relationship between resource efficiency and energy intensity (EI), highlighting the transitional dynamics of the country's Just Energy Transition. The study examines the short- and long-term impacts of water productivity (LWP), water withdrawal intensity (LWWI), electricity production from renewable sources (EPRS), and cereal yield (CY) on energy intensity using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach and annual time-series data covering 1990–2023. The results show that these variables have a statistically significant long-term cointegrating relationship. A higher energy intensity is linked to both short- and long-term increases in renewable electricity generation, which reflects transitional inefficiencies in early-stage renewable integration. On the other hand, reductions in water withdrawal intensity dramatically reduce energy intensity, highlighting the significance of water-use efficiency in reducing pressures on energy demand. The statistically insignificant effects of agricultural yield and water productivity point to structural heterogeneity and compensatory mechanisms in South Africa's resource systems. The results indicate that the Just Transition needs to consider the shifting trade-offs between efficiency and decarbonization, necessitating social inclusion, institutional collaboration, and technological advancements. Policy implications include boosting inter-sectoral governance mechanisms, encouraging water-efficient technologies, and improving grid flexibility. Quantifying resource interdependencies that influence sustainable energy transitions in emerging economies adds to the empirical discussion of the WEF nexus.
The study was aimed at examining the relationship between stock liquidity and share returns within mining sector companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). The study was pursued after realising a failure by the mining sector to reach its full potential, regardless of the presence of vast deposits of mineral resources. A need therefore is required to ensure that the various stakeholders gain trust within the sector for the purposes of enhancing investment. The study was undertaken using a quantitative methodology and panel data analysis technique through generalised methods of moments (GMM). A sample of 15 listed companies on the JSE was selected based on data availability, with 14-year data spanning from 2011 to 2024. The independent variable was stock liquidity, while stock returns represented the dependent variable and various control variables. The results from the study showed that there is a positive relationship between stock returns (SR) and price to earnings ratio, return on market, Amihud illiquidity measure (ILLIIQ), while SR had a negative relationship with volume of trade and size. The results from the study pose a positive effect towards existing and potential investors in their assessment when making investment decisions.
This study examines whether an aligned ESG proxy is associated differently with the returns of green-tilted and conventional cryptocurrency baskets. We combine an annual France-based ESG score from Refinitiv Datastream with daily cryptocurrency prices spanning 12 December 2021 to 27 September 2023. Daily log returns are aggregated into two equally weighted baskets - a green-tilted basket (GC: ADA, XTZ, THETA, ETH) and a conventional basket (CC: BTC, LTC, ETC) - and then averaged within month, yielding monthly average daily basket returns and 22 monthly observations. Because the ESG proxy is annual, it is mapped to daily frequency using a stepwise (forward-fill) transformation and then averaged to monthly frequency; the empirical exercise is therefore interpreted in reduced-form descriptive terms. We estimate a time-varying parameter VAR and compute generalized impulse responses (GIRFs) and generalized forecast-error variance decompositions (GFEVDs), complemented by connectedness and minimum-variance hedge metrics. A one-standard-deviation shock to ΔESG generates an immediate negative return response for both baskets (h = 0: -0.003385 for GC and -0.002674 for CC), followed by rapid reversion toward zero. GFEVD results indicate that ΔESG shocks account for 24.0% of GC's forecast-error variance at H = 10, compared with 13.794% for CC. Connectedness at H = 10 highlights strong within-crypto spillovers, with CC's variance largely explained by GC innovations (69.187%). Pillar decompositions imply smaller Social effects and comparatively larger short-run responses to Governance innovations. Hedge ratios are close to one and cross-hedging reduces variance by 78%, indicating limited diversification between the two baskets. Overall, the aligned ESG proxy is more tightly linked to GC than to CC, although the evidence remains descriptive given the annual proxy and short sample.
The question of whether electricity consumption (ELE) influences GDP, or vice versa, at the national and international levels, has been the subject of intense analysis by the academic community without a clear answer. Furthermore, additional subnational analyses are lacking to understand the underlying heterogeneity. This paper seeks to understand the dynamics between ELE and GDP in the States of Mexico between 1994 and 2024. After applying diagnostic tests such as cross-sectional dependence, panel unit roots, slope homogeneity, and cointegration, we employ advanced panel cointegration techniques, specifically cointegrating regressions (FMOLS and DOLS) and factor-augmented techniques (CUP-BC and CUP-FM), which we use as robust estimators. The empirical findings indicate a positive long-run association between ELE and GDP in most of the States in Mexico; however, the size of the estimated coefficients varies substantially across them (1.32 for Campeche and 0.103 for Michoacán). The factor-augmented estimators confirm that ELE has a coefficient of around 0.3. In addition, this analysis adopts a heterogeneous non-Granger test to understand short-run causalities. This test shows that ELE causes GDP only in Coahuila, Tlaxcala, and Sinaloa, and GDP causes ELE in Campeche and Yucatán, with weak evidence for Chihuahua and Puebla. However, at the panel level, we obtained weak support for the growth hypothesis between ELE and GDP, whereas strong support for the neutrality hypothesis prevails. Overall, the findings suggest that subnational energy policies should account for State-specific factors relevant to long-term growth and sustainability goals. These results have important implications for State policy design, suggesting the need for State-specific approaches rather than one-size-fits-all solutions.
Many regulated electricity systems operate without real-time market pricing, relying instead on administratively determined tariffs that fail to reflect short-run scarcity and surplus conditions. As variable renewable energy penetration increases, temporal mismatches between generation and demand create recurring periods of surplus and tightness within the same day, leading to renewable curtailment, inefficient dispatch, and underutilisation of storage and demand-side flexibility. This paper develops a deterministic shadow-pricing framework that infers the marginal value of electricity directly from observable system conditions rather than market-clearing prices. Using realised solar, wind, and demand data, we construct a dynamic proxy for the shadow price based on the relaxation or tightening of the short-run energy balance constraint. The resulting signal captures continuous variation in system scarcity and reveals economically meaningful price spreads that persist even under regulated dispatch. Empirical evidence from Sri Lanka shows that renewable surplus systematically depresses implied marginal value, while evening demand peaks restore scarcity, creating predictable windows for storage arbitrage and flexible demand. The framework provides a practical, low-complexity mechanism for improving operational efficiency, investment decisions, and tariff design in renewable-rich systems without requiring wholesale market reform.
This study examines the relationship between spot and forward prices in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) wholesale electricity market. I extend existing literature by employing rolling windows and recursive regressions to test to the risk-adjusted unbiased forward rate hypothesis on the MISO exchange. Although risk premiums and downward biased forward prices do exist, I find overall support for the risk-adjusted unbiased forward rate hypothesis. This result differs from previous research on the MISO exchange and may be explained by several factors, including an increase in the number of market participants and production capacity in recent years.
This study investigates the relationship between stock market return, stock market capitalization, and financial stability in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with particular emphasis on the moderating role of renewable energy development. Using an unbalanced panel of 16 MENA countries over the period 2000–2021, the analysis employs the System Generalized Method of Moments (SGMM) to address potential endogeneity, unobserved heterogeneity, and dynamic effects. The results indicate several important results. First, stock market return has a positive and significant effect on financial stability, suggesting that higher equity performance contributes to increased financial stability. In contrast, stock market capitalization shows a positive but statistically insignificant effect. Furthermore, findings also indicate that a higher share of renewable energy significantly enhances financial resilience. Nevertheless, the interactions term between stock market return, stock market capitalization and renewable energy do not exert any significant effect on financial stability. These findings imply that financial stability in the MENA region is primarily driven by market performance and the integration of renewable energy, while the sheer size of the stock market plays a limited role. Policies promoting renewable energy and stronger equity performance could therefore jointly enhance banking sector resilience.
This work investigates the relationship between access to electricity and financial development in Namibia. Three different forms of electricity access have been used in the analysis and the data is collected from World Development Indicators (WDI) for the span 1992 to 2022. The paper used the Fourie cointegration and frequency domain causality analysis to determine cointegration and direction of the causality at different frequencies. Based on three equations measuring access to electricity by different receipts it was determined that there is cointegration among access to electricity and financial development. Overall results shown a positive connection among financial development and access to electricity. Long-run findings indicate that there is causality moving from access to electricity for total population will lead to financial development. These findings suggest that as more people in Namibia have access to electricity this will lead to financial development. Policy implication suggested is that financial sectors must develop a reasonable and enabling energy loans (capitals) via tax holidays on sustainable energy connections for urban and rural areas.
