Clean energy consumption and CO2 emissions: Does China reduce some pollution burdens through environmental regulation?

Abstract This study scrutinizes the asymmetry phenomenon in environmental regulation- clean energy and environmental quality nexus in China. The study adopts the time series nonlinear ARDL approach proposed by Shin et al. (2014), which separates positive shocks from negative shocks to environmental regulation. Our findings reveal that there is evidence of asymmetry in the environmental regulation- clean energy nexus in China in the short and long run, while asymmetry holds in direction and magnitude in short-run and only in magnitude in long run over the period of study. We find that the response of environmental quality to environmental regulation shocks differs in magnitude and direction in the only long run. The asymmetries exist in clean consumption and CO2 emissions findings, Thus China should revise the policies of energy and environment.