Are UN and US economic sanctions a cause or cure for the environment: empirical evidence from Iran

Abstract

The present study was performed to empirically investigate the short- and long-term effects of multilateral-unilateral UN–US economic sanctions on the natural environment of Iran. It is benefited from autoregressive distributed lag methodology for empirical analysis during 1973–2017. The results revealed that only unilateral economic sanctions of the US are indeed damaging to the target Iran’s CO2 emissions. Although US economic sanctions cause short-term improvements in Iran’s environment, it results in long-term deteriorating effects. Moreover, the detrimental long-term effects of UN–US’s severe sanctions on the environment are stronger than their mild sanctions. The results obtained also suggest both short- and long-term U-shaped (EKC) association between per capita GDP and CO2 emissions. Granger causality tests indicate a one-way causality from US unilateral economic sanctions toward CO2 emissions. The results suggest the potential and importance of the effects of lifting sanctions on controlling CO2 emissions and sustainable development in Iran.