The environmental impact of renewables

Abstract

The aim of this research is two-fold. Firstly, to introduce a trilemma of a global sustainable energy system and, secondly, to perform a quantitative assessment of the effect of renewables on the environmental impacts of electricity generation, taking into account the existing divergences between developed and developing countries. In a multi-regional, multi-country, and dynamic approach, a regression analysis is performed to determine the causal relationship between renewables and environmental indicators on climate change, human toxicity, respiratory impacts, ionising radiation, freshwater eutrophication, marine eutrophication, freshwater ecotoxicity, land use and mineral and fossil resource depletion. Results show that renewable energy consumption significantly improves environmental outcomes in both developed and developing countries. As a result, renewables represent a suitable climate change mitigation option.