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Renewable energy consumption has been promoted to mitigate climate change problems under various schemes, such as the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement. A country's choice of energy resources depends on the balancing of economic growth and environmental degradation, which will be closely related to its development stage. This study examines how the relationship between renewable energy consumption and carbon emissions is associated with the development stage by applying a panel cointegration analysis to 107 countries during the period from 1990 to 2013. The analysis shows the clear differences between the groups of low- and high-income countries. For low-income countries, renewable energy consumption is positively and negatively associated with carbon emissions and output, respectively. However, for high-income countries, renewable energy consumption is negatively and positively associated with carbon emissions and output, respectively. These results have important implications for policymakers, since the discrepancies in these relationships mean that a country's renewable energy policies should be highly compatible with its development stage. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.