MEASURING THE IMPACT OF ECONOMIC POLICIES ON CO2 EMISSIONS: WAYS TO ACHIEVE GREEN ECONOMIC RECOVERY IN THE POST-COVID-19 ERA

Abstract

Regional attempts to reduce pollution levels emerging from the European Union (EU) relative to 2010 are contrasted with unique policies of individual member countries’ aims to achieve a 10% reduction per country. Given this scenario, this research expands on the topic by developing a novel framework that links macroeconomic policies, total national expenditure per person, traditional energy use, renewable energy use, and CO2 emissions levels in EU countries from 1990 to 2016. The study utilizes the second generation cross-sectional-autoregressive-distributed lag (CS-ARDL) panel data method. According to the study’s findings, the monetary instruments of growth exacerbated the adverse effects of CO2 emissions, and by tightening monetary policy, the harmful effects of CO2 emissions levels have been reduced. Further, the Granger causality test indicates a bidirectional causality between monetary policy and CO2 emissions levels, and unidirectional causality from the policy assessment for energy use. The finding confirms that the assessment policy recommendations on energy consumption have future effects on ecological value.