Growth threshold effect on renewable energy transition in Southeast Asian economies: Insights from News Announcement

This article examines the growth threshold impacting access to clean and renewable energy in eight Southeast Asian countries from 2000 to 2023. Utilizing panel data and threshold regression analysis, the study confirms several hypotheses regarding the relationship between clean energy access and the renewable energy transition. The re-search reveals significant moderating effects of growth, foreign direct investment (FDI), trade, and research and development (R&D) on this nexus, confirming Hypotheses 1, 2, and 3. Notably, when the growth threshold is below 1.68%, access to clean energy positively influences the renewable energy transition, while surpassing this threshold results in reduced positive effects. This supports Hypothesis 4, demonstrating the complex dynamics of growth and clean energy transition in the region. Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 7, which focuses on affordable and accessible clean energy in Southeast Asia, entails a transition to renewable energy that may incur economic costs. This transition can negatively affect economies when key growth indicators are insufficient, as indicated by the article's findings. Therefore, policies should promote sustained growth while ensuring investments in research and development, trade, and foreign direct investment (FDI), which are expected to benefit the region in the long term. In the short term, it may be necessary to reassess current policies to prevent misallocation of resources, ensuring progress towards SDG-7 before the 2030 deadline. Future research should investigate additional factors that could facilitate a sustained transition to renewable energy and examine the complex relationship between economic growth, access to clean energy, and renewable energy transition in Southeast Asian countries.