Energy saving, GHG abatement and industrial growth in OECD countries: A green productivity approach

Environmentally-friendly sustainable economic development has been a worldwide concern, whereas the existing literature has not studied the specific directions and potential evaluation of green growth. This study compares the development trends of green growth in OECD countries and estimates the potentials of energy saving, GHG abatement and industrial growth based on the green productivity measurement. Using green productivity approach provides a new idea of organizing three aspects of green growth in one research framework. The results show that OECD countries have different performances and potentials for green growth. Three pathways of green growth: technological breakthrough-orientation, energy saving and emission reduction-orientation, balanced growth -orientation are proposed for different types of OECD countries. The findings provide implications for OECD countries to promote green growth in the future. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.