Chapter Two - The electricity generation, waste, and CO2 emissions in Latin America and the Caribbean countries: a panel autoregressive distributed lag approach

Abstract

The chapter aims to explore the energy–growth nexus impacts on the environment for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) countries. A yearly panel data of 21 countries from 1971 to 2013 are examined by the autoregressive distributed lag technique. The use of energy, electricity generation, gross domestic product (GDP), and waste-to-energy impacts on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are scrutinized. The empirical results support the presence of cross-sectional dependence and cointegration. On one hand, the Pollution model reveals that waste-to-energy causes a negative impact on CO2 emissions in LAC. On the other hand, GDP and primary energy consumption causes an increase in pollution levels. The Growth model shows evidence that CO2 emissions have positive impacts on economic growth in both the short and long run. Furthermore, in the short-run electricity production has a positive effect on economic growth, while in the long run a negative impact is observed. Finally, the model also reveals a short-run negative impact running from waste-to-energy to economic growth.