CO2 emissions persistence: Evidence using fractional integration

Abstract

The main cause of climate change are carbon dioxide emissions. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of emissions has been significantly reduced for the first time in many years. Now it is necessary to answer the question of whether CO2 emissions are stationary or not, because the results will let us know whether environmental policies have to be strengthened rather than relaxed in intensity. To this end, this paper investigates the persistence in CO2 emissions in a group of countries to determine if shocks in the series have permanent or transitory effects. The results, based on fractional integration indicate evidence of mean reversion, with values of the differencing parameter constrained between 0 and 1 in all cases, independently of the assumption made about the error term (white noise or autocorrelation). Focusing on the areas under examination, it is obtained that the EU27+UK, Japan and the US present the lowest degrees of integration, while Russia, China and India display the highest values. Decreasing time trends are only observed for the EU27+UK and US.