The government orientation and use of renewable energy: Case of Europe

Left-wing parties have tendency to consider environmental demands from the society more than the other parties with different orientation. Therefore it is argued that the left-oriented parties have a greater tendency to rely on renewable energy consumption. Using a data from Europe between the years 1999 and 2009, this study aims to examine the impact of government orientation on the level of renewable energy consumption. It is found that there is a significant and positive relationship between renewable energy consumption and countries’ government orientation, whether as a single ruling party or coalition, both from left-oriented or centre-oriented governments and a significant and negative relationship when a ruling party or coalition from right-oriented government. This study contributes to the currently limited literature on renewable energy consumption and government orientation by testing the relation empirically with the significant results.

► We model the share of renewable energy use on government orientation.
► We examine changes in the share of renewable energy use across countries.
► Left-oriented governments have higher share of renewable energy use.
► Centre-oriented governments have higher shares of renewable energy use.
► Right-oriented governments have lower shares of renewable energy use.