Increasing the use of electrical non-combustible and combustible renewables: the effects on air pollution

The paper aims to investigate the impact of the introduction of electrical non-combustible and combustible renewables on the reduction of emissions, expressed at disaggregated level. The effect of electrical renewables is estimated by means of fixed and random effects of a panel data of twenty-eight European Union countries analysed for the period 1995-2015. The results confirm that electrical renewables play a strategic role in abating pollutant emissions in European countries. For each environmental indicator, the share of electricity generated from renewable sources shows a negative elasticity with non-combustible renewables have higher elasticities than those associated with combustible renewables. The results demonstrate that the expansion of electrical non-combustible renewables can be considered as an effective policy tool for contrasting air pollution.