Consideration of the impact of the transition from a cash crop economy on the carbon footprint

Abstract

The object of the study is the carbon footprint (CO2), which is skyrocketing despite augmented awareness of this issue and a growing willingness to act. The effects of climate change have recently become more severe and have garnered international attention. Recent discussion has focused on carbon footprint as one of the most urgent global issues facing all nations. The tradeoff between carbon footprint and economic growth for credible climate change measures is still understudied in terms of rigorous economic causal analysis. To comprehend the magnitude and speed of the transition away from an agricultural-based economy, it is necessary to quantify and compare the levels of carbon footprint associated with the agricultural, industrial, and service sectors of the country. In order to understand each economic sector's individual contributions to the overall carbon footprint and to assess the relationship between level of economic diversification and the levels of emissions, first identify the main factors and forces that have an impact on each sector's carbon footprint and then consider how the country's transition away from an agricultural-based economy has affected emissions in other economic sectors. This study investigates the impact of the economy's transition away from cash crops on carbon footprint, analyzes the conversion-affecting variables, and quantifies the significance applying the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), and then regress the model. It is found that there is an inverted U-shaped pattern in the association between carbon footprint and each of industry, service, and manufacturing value added; agriculture, however, shows insignificant inverted U-shaped pattern. In addition, we discovered that every dependent variable – aside from the GDP contribution of agriculture – has a positive correlation with carbon footprint. Analysis revealed that improving agriculture results in lower carbon dioxide emissions. While the economic contributions of agriculture are more environmentally friendly, those of industry, services, and manufacturing leave carbon footprints behind to achieve sustainability, agricultural policy subsidies and deregulation may function as driving factors for the expansion of the cash crop economy. On the one hand, tax policy may be an effective instrument for boosting low-carbon energy consumption in the sector. It is presumptive that environmental phenomena, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and flues, have not had a significant impact on the economy. This article is pertinent to the nations now dealing with significant environmental problems.