Clean energy, population density, urbanization and environmental pollution nexus: Evidence from Bangladesh

Abstract

Environmental problem is a much discussed issue worldwide. It is a more serious issue for Bangladesh, which is vulnerable to frequent natural disasters. Therefore, this work aims to identify the short-run and long-run causal relationships between clean energy, population density, urbanization, economic development, trade openness and environmental pollution in Bangladesh using the data of 1973–2014. Different time series related econometric techniques such as Augmented Dickey-Fuller test, Phillips-Perron test, Autoregressive Distributive Lag (ARDL) bounds test and the Toda-Yamamoto Granger causality test are applied to find out outcomes. Our findings are: the use of clean energy improved the environmental quality, but population density, urbanization and economic growth are found to be detrimental to the environment; a unidirectional causality of CO2 emissions with clean energy, economic growth and urbanization is also revealed. Therefore, the use of more clean energy for reducing the environmental pollution is to be ensured.