A study on emissions efficiency, emissions technology gap ratio, room for improvement in emissions intensity, and pluralized relationships.

Abstract

This study investigates the relationships among emissions efficiency (Em), the emissions technology gap ratio (TGm), and room for improvement in emissions intensity (RIm), and creates target-consideration environmental Kuznets curves (TC-EKC) which are then examined and compared for countries in the European Union (EU) that are divided into those countries in the Baltic Sea region (BSR) and those in the non-Baltic Sea region (NBSR). The research results indicate that the BSR countries exhibit an inverted-U-shaped TC-EKC, but the NBSR countries do not, implying that CO2 emissions in the latter region do not achieve the target. The small TGm and the large RIm for the BSR countries indicate that this region has a low Em and is at the preliminary stage of emissions technology development.