International Journal of Renewable Energy Development 11 (1) 2022: 145-155 | 145 IJRED-ISSN: 2252-4940.Copyright © 2022. The Authors. Published by CBIORE Contents list available at IJRED website Int. Journal of Renewable Energy Development (IJRED) Journal homepage: https://ijred.undip.ac.id Impact of Globalization and Renewable Energy Consumption on Environmental Degradation: A Lesson for South Africa Seun Damola Oladipupo 1 , Husam Rjoub 2 , Dervis Kirikkaleli 3 , Tomiwa Sunday Adebayo 4* 1 Department of Earth Science, Faculty of Science, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ogun State, Nigeria. 2 Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Accounting and Finance, Cyprus International University, Mersin 10, 99040 Haspolat, Turkey 3 Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Banking and Finance, European University of Lefke, Lefke, Northern Cyprus TR-10, Mersin, Turkey 4 Faculty of Economics and Administrative Science, Department of Business Administration, Cyprus International University, 99040 Nicosia, Turkey Abstract. South Africa is one of Africa's most polluted countries, with rising CO2 emissions posing a threat. South Africa must discover ways of minimizing pollution and take necessary steps before it is too late in order to achieve sustainable growth. For this purpose, this research assesses the ecological consequences of globalization, nonrenewable energy use, economic growth and renewable energy consumption in South Africa. The study leverages on the non-linearity advantages of the novel quantile on quantile regression (QQR) method for a robust analysis as opposed to the use of conventional linear approaches, thereby overcoming conspicuous shortfalls in extant studies, while offering a detailed explanation of the overall dependency structure between CO2 emissions and globalization, nonrenewable energy use and renewable energy use using a dataset covering the period between 1970 and 2018. The outcomes suggest that nonrenewable energy use, globalization, and economic growth contribute to environmental degradation in the majority of the quantiles, while the effect of renewable energy use on CO2 is not strong at all quantiles. The study highlights that economic expansion, nonrenewable energy use and globalization play key roles in in mitigating environmental sustainability in South Africa, while renewable energy is not sufficient to meet environmental requirements. Keywords: Economic growth; Carbon emission; Globalization; Renewable Energy Consumption; Quantile-on-Quantile Regressions Article History: Received: 2 nd August 2021; Revised: 5 th Oct 2021; Accepted: 19 th Oct 2021; Available online: 3 rd November 2021 How to Cite This Article: Oladipupo, S.D., Rjoub, H., Kirikkaleli, D., Adebayo, T.S. (2022) Impact of Globalization and Renewable Energy Consumption on Environmental Degradation: A Lesson for Developing Nations. Int. J. Renew. En. Dev., 11(1), 145-155 https://doi.org/10.14710/ijred.2022.40452 1. Introduction Environmentalists, energy economists, and policymakers around the world who plan and enact energy and environmental policies have been debating the effects of constant demand on biodiversity and the environment. Considering the overall awareness of the need for safer, green energy sources, this is reasonable (Adebayo and Kirikkaleli, 2021). According to the literature on energy economics, energy consumption is associated with economic growth because increased energy use leads to increased economic expansion (Bekun et al. 2020; Alola et al. 2021). However, a rise in economic activity will lead to increased energy use and, as a result, a decrease in energy consumption. According to Halicioglu (2009) before the industrial revolution, energy use and economic expansion were found to be linked. Nevertheless, this association is to blame for the increase in environmental pollution caused by CO2 emissions as a result of massive industrial * Corresponding author: Twaikline@gmail.com production and fossil fuel usage for long-term economic development. A growing economy requires more energy and production to maintain actual economic growth (Ozturk, 2010; Fareed et al. 2021). The use of energy is expected to augment pollution levels, and there is a strong link between pollution and economic expansion. As a result, the current research aims to evaluate the effect of energy use, globalization, and GDP on CO2 emissions in South Africa. Since the innovative study of Grossman and Krueger (1991), the effect of economic growth on CO2 emissions has been extensively investigated by scholars in the literature. In earlier environmental degradation studies, renewable energy consumption (REC) was also examined. Since decreasing CO2 emissions by reducing energy use can have a detrimental impact on economic growth, governments have been exploring alternative energy sources such as nuclear and renewable energy as a replacement for fossil Research Article