The sustainability of the environment debate cannot be addressed without considering the type of energy to use. The pace at which the world is industrializing, globalizing, and developing economically has prompted many researchers to investigate the kind of energy required to preserve the environment. In this regard, this study employs the mediation model to assess renewable energy's direct and indirect effects on carbon emissions through globalization. The data for the study is from 1990 to 2020. The study's findings showed that while renewable energy has no appreciable impact on trade openness, it directly and negatively affects carbon emissions. However, foreign direct investment has a direct and significant positive effect on carbon emissions, while trade openness has no significant effect. The indirect result revealed that renewable energy through foreign direct investment has a negative effect on carbon emissions; however, renewable energy through trade openness has a positive effect on carbon emissions. Policymakers are encouraged to restrict the trade sector to reduce the trading of high-emission technologies.

The concept of environmental sustainability aims to achieve economic development while achieving a sustainable environment. The inverted U-shape relationship between economic growth and environmental quality, also called Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC), describes the correlation between economic growth and carbon emissions. This study assesses the role of agriculture and energy-related variables while evaluating the EKC threshold in 54 African economies, and income groups, according to World Bank categorization, including low income, lower-middle, upper-middle, and high-income in Africa. With 1990–2015 panel data, the results are estimated using panel cointegration, Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS), and granger causality tests. The results are: (1) The study validated the EKC hypothesis in the low-income, lower-, and upper-middle-income economies. However, there is no evidence of EKC in the full African and high-income panels. Furthermore, the turning points of EKC in the income group are meagerly low, showing that Africa could be turning on EKC at lower income levels. (2) The correlation between agriculture with CO₂ is found positive in the high-income economy. However, agriculture has a mitigation effect on emissions in the lower-middle-income and low-income economies, and the full sample. Also, renewable energy is negatively correlated with emissions in Africa and the high-income economy. In contrast, non-renewable energy exerts a positive effect on emissions in all income groups except the low-income economies.

Promoting environmental sustainability to secure and protect the ecosystem has been a major concern to many nations and nongovernmental organizations. Energy is considered one of the main contributors to carbon emissions which destroys the quality of the environment. Therefore, the study uses Two-stage least squares to examine the effect of energy (renewable and fossil energy) and economic growth on carbon emissions in Ghana. To ensure the quality of our result, Robustness Least Square and Generalized Method of Moments are employed as a robustness check. The data for the study is from 1990 to 2018. The result of the study indicates that renewable energy and fossil fuel cause carbon emissions in Ghana within the years under review. Economic growth has no relevant effect on carbon emissions. To promote environmental sustainability in Ghana, measures should be put in place to encourage the use of cleaner energy. The government should establish cooperation with countries with high renewable technologies to benefit from their innovations to improve on their renewable energy consumption.

The concern for environmental sustainability comes along with sustainable energy for consumption. Therefore, this study aims to explore the direct and indirect effects of renewable energy on economic growth and carbon emissions by employing Partial Least Square Structure Equation Modeling and Granger Causality Test and the data for this study is from 1990 to 2021. The results from the Partial Least Squares Structure Equation Modeling indicate that renewable energy consumption causes carbon emissions and has no effect on economic growth. Financial inclusion and foreign direct investment have positive effects on carbon emissions. However, renewable energy has an indirect negative effect on carbon emissions through economic growth. Foreign direct investment affects economic growth positively. Furthermore, the results from the Granger causality test indicate that renewable energy has a unidirectional causality relationship with financial inclusion and foreign direct investment and has a feedback causality relationship with economic growth. In addition, there is a feedback causal effect between financial inclusion and carbon emissions, a unidirectional effect running from carbon emissions to foreign direct investment, and a causal effect from economic growth to foreign direct investment. This study has suggested comprehensive policy recommendations for policymakers based on the findings.