| Apergis et al. (2015) | 11 South American countries 1980–2010 | PCM | REC CO2 decrease |
| Attiaoui et al. (2017) | 22 African countries 1990–2011 | ARDL | REC CO2 decrease |
| Ben Jebli (2019) | 22 Central and South American countries 1995–2010 | PCM | REC CO2 growth |
| Bhat (2018) | Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa 1992–2016 | STIRPAT | REC CO2 decrease |
| Charfeddine and Kahia (2019) | MENA 1980–2015 | PVAR | REC CO2 growth, but weak |
| Chen et al. (2019) | China 1980–2014 | ARDL | REC CO2 decrease |
| Chen et al. (2019) | China 1995–2012 | FMOLS | REC CO2 decrease, only in the eastern and western regions |
| Cherni et al. (2017) | Tunisia 1990–2015 | ARDL | No granger causality |
| de Souza (2018) | Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela 1990–2014 | ARDL | REC CO2 decrease |
| Dogan and Ozturk (2017) | USA 1980–2014 | ARDL, EKC | REC CO2 decrease |
| Dogan et al. (2016a, 2016b) | Top 10 REC countries 1985–2011 | FMOLS | REC CO2 decrease |
| Dong et al. (2020) | 120 countries 1995–2015 | PCM | REC CO2 decrease |
| Dong et al. (2018) | 128 countries 1990–2014 | STIRPAT | REC CO2 decrease |
| Dong et al. (2018) | China 1993–2016 | ARDL | REC CO2 decrease |
| Emir et al. (2019) | Romania 1990–2014 | ARDL | No granger causality |
| Hanif (2018) | 34 emerging countries 1995–2015 | GMM | REC improves air quality by controlling carbon emissions |
| Ito (2016) | 31 developed countries 1996–2011 | PCM | REC CO2 decrease |
| Kahia et al. (2019) | MENA 1980–2012 | PVAR | REC CO2 decrease |
| Leal et al. (2018) | Australia 1965–2015 | ARDL | No granger causality |
| Lee (2019) | European Union 1961–2012 | PCM | REC CO2 decrease |
| Long et al. (2015) | China 1952–2012 | ARDL | No granger causality, but think that REC can decrease CO2 emissions |
| Lu (2017) | Asian 1990–2012 | PCM | REC CO2 growth |
| Mahmood et al. (2019) | Pakistani 1980–2014 | 3SLS, EKC | REC CO2 growth |
| Moutinho and Robaina (2016) | 20 European countries 1991–2010 | PVECM | REC CO2 decrease |
| Naz et al. (2019) | Pakistan 1975–2016 | ARDL | REC CO2 decrease |
| Pata (2018) | Turkey 1974–2014 | ARDL | No granger causality |
| Paweenawat and Plyngam (2017) | Thailand 1986–2012 | ARDL | No granger causality |
| Rahil et al. (2019) | Libya 2015 | SAM | REC CO2 decrease, which has economic benefits |
| Shahzad et al. (2018) | China and India 1970–2013 | ARDL | REC CO2 decrease |
| Toumi and Toumi (2019) | Saudi Arabia 1990–2014 | ARDL | REC CO2 decrease |
| Ummalla and Samal (2019) | China and India 1965–2016 | ARDL | No granger causality |
| Yazdi and Shakouri (2018) | Germany 1975–2014 | VAR | No granger causality |
| Zaghdoudi (2017) | OECD 1990–2015 | PCM | No granger causality |
| Zrelli (2017) | Mediterranean 1980–2011 | PVECM | REC CO2 growth |
| This paper | Most of the countries grouped by their income levels in BRI in 1992–2014 | LMDI | – |