Investigating hydropower energy consumption's effect on Southeast Asia's path to achieving environmental sustainability and carbon neutrality

2025/08/03 by Ghalieb Mutig Idroes, Iffah Hafizah, Djoni Hartono +4 · 2 voices
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Energy · Environmental Science · #Energy and Environment Impacts #Energy, Environment, Economic Growth #Energy, Environment, and Transportation Policies

paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s44246-025-00218-4

openalex publication_date 2025/08/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23

Abstract

Abstract Hydropower presents significant environmental advantages over fossil fuels, particularly due to its minimal emissions during operation. This research examines the dynamic effects of hydropower energy consumption, fossil fuels, economic growth, manufacturing, agriculture, capital formation, and labor on CO 2 emissions in Southeast Asian (SEA) countries from 2000 to 2022. Utilizing methods such as the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL), Vector Error Correction Model (VECM), and Dumitrescu-Hurlin (D-H) causality tests, the study provides empirical insights into the interactions among these variables. According to our findings, CO 2 emissions decrease when hydropower energy consumption and capital formation rise. In contrast, factors such as fossil fuels, economic growth, agriculture, and labor are associated with rising CO 2 emissions. The impulse response analysis indicates that shocks in hydropower energy consumption result in a decrease in CO 2 emissions. Additionally, the findings reveal a bidirectional causality between CO 2 emissions and hydropower energy consumption. These results underscore the critical importance of sustainable energy policies in SEA countries, promoting investment in hydropower and renewables to mitigate emissions and support environmental sustainability. To meet the region's long-term environmental and economic objectives, it is imperative to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, improve energy efficiency, and promote green technologies. Graphical Abstract

Citations

• A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth
• Likelihood Ratio Statistics for Autoregressive Time Series with a Unit Root
• Investigating Causal Relations by Econometric Models and Cross-spectral Methods
• The renewable energy role in the global energy Transformations
• Human capital in the sustainable economic development of the energy sector
• Testing for a unit root in time series regression
• A Test for Normality of Observations and Regression Residuals

Discussions

• A new study reveals how hydropower energy consumption significantly reduces CO₂ emissions across Southeast Asia—paving the way toward carbon neutrality! This research uses advanced econometric model [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
• A new study reveals how hydropower energy consumption significantly reduces CO₂ emissions across Southeast Asia—paving the way toward carbon neutrality! This research uses advanced econometric model [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]