Abstract
Significant increases in energy demands have occurred in recent years. Meeting the increasing energy demands with fossil resources causes severe environmental pollution and this issue has an essential place on the world agenda. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of renewable energy use and economic growth on the environment in Turkey. For this purpose, the study analyzes the relationship among the variables of real pressure per nature, real GDP per capita, the square of GDP per capita, financial development, trade openness, and the ratio of energy obtained from renewable energy resources to total energy from 1972 to 2015. In addition to Johansen and ARDL co-integration tests, the study also uses variance decomposition analysis. According to the study results, real GDP per capita, trade openness, and increases in financial development have a longterm positive impact on environmental damage. The square of GDP and the increase in the amount of energy obtained from renewable energy sources negatively affect environmental damage. In addition, the estimation results indicate that real GDP per capita is the variable that causes the most real pressure on nature