Will artificial intelligence accelerate or delay the race between nuclear energy technology budgeting and net-zero emissions?

TL;DR

This paper investigates how artificial intelligence influences the relationship between nuclear energy budgeting and CO2 emissions in OECD countries, revealing AI's significant moderating role in promoting low-carbon energy transitions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analysis of AI's moderating effect on nuclear energy's impact on emissions using advanced quantile regression techniques, addressing endogeneity and heteroscedasticity.

Findings

AI significantly impacts CO2 emissions.

AI moderates the nuclear energy-emissions relationship.

Nuclear energy alone does not significantly reduce emissions.

Abstract

This study explores the impact of nuclear energy technology budgeting and artificial intelligence on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 20 OECD economies. Unlike previous research that relied on conventional panel techniques, we utilize the Method of Moment Quantile Regression panel data estimation techniques. This approach provides quantile-specific insights while addressing issues of endogeneity and heteroscedasticity, resulting in a more nuanced and robust understanding of complex relationships. A novel aspect of this research work is introducing the moderating effect of artificial intelligence on the relationship between nuclear energy and CO2 emissions. The results found that the direct impact of artificial intelligence on CO2 emissions is significant, while the effect of nuclear energy technology budgeting is not. Additionally, artificial intelligence moderates the relationship between nuclear energy technology budgeting and CO2 emissions, aiding nuclear energy in reducing carbon emissions across OECD countries. Our findings indicate that transitioning to a low-carbon future is achievable by replacing fossil fuel energy sources with increased integration of artificial intelligence to promote nuclear energy technologies. This study demonstrates that energy innovations can serve as effective climate-resilience strategies to mitigate the impacts of climate change.