Sustainability of renewable energy production: empirical evidence from developing and middle-income countries

Purpose This study aims to examine the appropriate measures needed toward achieving sustainability of renewable energy production among developing and middle-income countries. Design/methodology/approach This study uses semi-annual panel data covering the period 2000–2020 among 152 developing and middle-income countries and Cox proportional hazard model for the analysis. Findings Estimates indicate that effective operations of environmental institutions, investment in research and development, subsidizing the production of renewable energy, government investment in producing renewable energy and investment in renewable energy production made by the private sector will contribute immensely toward achieving sustainability of renewable energy production. Practical implications This study recommends that governments should rationalize their expenditures to mobilize enough resources for investment in renewable energy production. Again, operations of environmental institutions should be enhanced through giving their managers’ performance contracts and licensing its employees. Enabling environment should be created for private sector to increase their investment in renewable energy production. Originality/value Empirical studies have been carried out exploring measures to deal with climate change. Nonetheless, the appropriate measures needed toward achieving sustainability of renewable energy production among developing and middle-income countries have not been explored in existing empirical studies. Hence, this study fills the gap in existing empirical studies.