Many studies in the literature confirm the validity of the technique effect, which improves the quality of the environment by investigating whether an inverted U-shaped relationship exists between environmental pollution and economic growth. Ignoring the role of the technological obsolescence effect, which may also exert influence on an economy, these studies reach an optimistic conclusion for growth policies. By controlling renewable energy, this study examines the existence of the obsolescence effect by constructing an N-shaped relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation for the most vulnerable countries in the Mediterranean region to climate change. We conducted a battery of cross-sectional dependence tests, second-generation panel unit root, and cointegration tests in 17 selected Mediterranean countries covering 1990–2017. The results provide evidence of an N-shaped relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation. The study provides important policy recommendations and discusses how renewable energy can be deployed to reduce CO₂ emissions.

大量文献研究通过考察环境污染与经济增长之间是否存在倒U型关系，证实了技术效应的有效性，技术效应改善了环境质量。忽略可能对经济产生影响的技术过时效应的作用，这些研究对增长政策得出了乐观的结论。通过控制可再生能源，本研究通过构建地中海地区最易受气候变化影响的国家的经济增长与环境退化之间的 N 型关系来检验过时效应的存在。我们进行了一系列横截面依赖性测试，第二代面板单位根，17 个选定的地中海国家 1990-2017 年的协整检验。结果提供了经济增长与环境退化之间 N 型关系的证据。该研究提供了重要的政策建议，并讨论了如何部署可再生能源以减少二氧化碳₂排放。