Renewable and non-renewable energy use and its relationship with economic growth in Myanmar Abstract This study aims to investigate the dynamic relationship between renewable and non-renewable energies, CO2 intensity and economic growth for the period of 1990–2016 using a case study of Myanmar. Autoregressive distributed lag, dynamic OLS, fully modified OLS and Gregory–Hansen co-integration are applied to analyse a time series dataset over the specified time period. The analysis shows that total energy use plays an insignificant role in promoting economic growth. However, decomposition analysis reveals that only renewable energy use significantly promotes, whereas non-renewable energy negatively influences, economic growth. Furthermore, non-renewable energy use is counterproductive in the presence of technological inefficiency, and the size of the overall labour force fosters economic growth. Overall results are robust under different estimation scenarios, including structural break, endogeneity and mixed order of integration. This study presents a new avenue of knowledge by investigating the role of decomposed energy use and technological efficiency in promoting economic growth in the context of Myanmar. Results emphasise the production and use of renewable energy to achieve sustainable economic development in Myanmar.