Enhancing environmental quality and mitigating climate change: a renewable energy policy perspective based on evidence from most polluted European countries

With increased climate change issues, renewable energy has become important for ensuring environmental quality. Using fossil fuels or other pollutants in energy production adversely influences human life and threatens environmental well-being by reducing environmental quality. The present research highlights renewable energy policy and its ability to enhance environmental quality and mitigate climate change issues in the most polluted European countries. The study has adopted a secondary approach for quantitative research. Data has been collected from 2008 to 2022 and analysed using the method of moments quantile regression (MMQR). The model provides beneficial insights, showing non-linearity and asymmetries in the variables. The outcomes show that renewable energy has no significant effect on environmental quality and plays a substantial negative role in climate change mitigation. Moreover, environmental taxes and urbanization are found to play positive roles in climate change mitigation and environmental quality. The research has numerous theoretical and practical implications as it extends the growing body of literature regarding renewable energy policies, environmental quality, and the mitigation of climate change. Furthermore, the practical insights of the study provide beneficial guidelines for governments regarding improving environmental sustainability through renewable energy policies.