Does renewable energy proactively contribute to mitigating carbon emissions in major fossil fuels consuming countries?

The success of global climate initiatives (SDG-13, COP28) heavily depends on the actions of major fossil fuels consuming countries, as their continued reliance on these energy sources greatly impedes progress towards global climate objectives. Transitioning from the dominance of fossil fuels to the expansion of renewable energy is crucial for ensuring Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Conference on Parties (COP) objectives under UN climate change initiatives, as well as for achieving environmental sustainability. This study investigates the proactive role of renewable energy in enhancing environmental sustainability and evaluates the impact of fossil fuel consumption, real gross domestic product (RGDP), square of RGDP, and patents on carbon emissions in major fossil fuels consuming countries from 1990 to 2020 after considering and disregarding the EKC model. Two-way additive and interactive fixed effect models demonstrate a statistically significant negative effect of renewable energy on carbon emissions. A method of moments quantile regression endorses the asymmetric negative effects of renewable energy across different quantiles of CO₂ emissions. According to the quantile regression, a low CO₂ emitting country's environmental quality is largely sensitive to the consumption of renewable energy. Also, after considering heterogeneity, cross-sectional dependence and endogeneity issues, the effect of renewable energy remains unchanged. On the contrary, unlike renewable energy, fossil fuel consumption, real GDP, square of real GDP, and patents have positive effects in most cases, worsening environmental quality by increasing CO₂ levels. Therefore, based on these findings, our study emphasizes pivotal policy implications aimed at fostering a better environment in major fossil fuels consuming countries.