The Role of Agriculture and Renewable Energy in Meeting the Goals of the Paris Agreement; Case Study: Selected Countries of MENA Region

This study investigates the relationship between renewable energy consumption, agricultural value added and per capita GDP with CO2 emissions in selected countries of MENA region. The study estimates the values of cointegration amongst the selected varaiables  using panel data from selected countries for the period 1990 to 2014. The results indicated a long-run relationship between these variables. Estimation of long-term relationships showed that consumption of renewable energies and agricultural value added had a significant negative effect on CO2 emissions and per capita GDP had a positive and significant effect. This indicates the usefulness of investments in renewable energies. In the short run it is estimated that agricultural value added  has no significant effect on emissions, while renewable energy consumption and per capita GDP have significant effects. Given the significant short-run adjustment coefficient of these two variables, ti will take approximately four years for an accidental shock to be corrected. Therefore, it is recommended that economic activities that use fossil fuels be subject to the maximum permissible limits of pollution emission, in order to protect the environment. JEL Classification: Q1, Q2, Q4, Q53, C59 Keywords: Greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energies, agricultural value added, MENA region