Abstract
This study measures the relationship and dynamic impacts of economic growth and forested area on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in Malaysia. Time series data over the period of 1990 to 2016 were used by employing the dynamic ordinary least squared (DOLS) approach. The results of DOLS estimation indicate that the coefficient of economic growth is positive and significant with CO2 emissions, meaning that RM1 million increase in gross domestic product (GDP) is associated with an increase in CO2 emissions of 0.931 kilo tons. Instead, the long-run coefficient of forested area found negative and significant, which implies that declining one hectare of forested area (i.e., deforestation) has an impact of three kilo tons of CO2 emissions rise in Malaysia. Our study findings indicate that economic growth and deforested area have an adverse effect on Malaysia’s carbon emissions where GDP growth fosters carbon emissions at a faster rate. Thus, the effective implementation of policy measures and economic instruments including afforestation and reforestation, forest conservation, sustainable forest management, REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation plus) mechanism and other emission reduction mechanisms inter alia could be useful for reducing carbon emissions while decreasing deforestation and maintaining the long-term economic growth in Malaysia.
Highlights
Over the 21st century, atmospheric accumulation of greenhouse gases (GHGs) has become a major concern due to climate change
Our findings prove that economic growth has a significant impact on CO2 emissions, where gross domestic product (GDP) growth fosters CO2 emissions at a faster rate in Malaysia
The results of dynamic ordinary least squared (DOLS) estimation reveal that economic growth and deforested areas have an adverse impact on Malaysia’s carbon emissions where GDP growth fosters carbon emissions at a faster rate
Summary
Over the 21st century, atmospheric accumulation of greenhouse gases (GHGs) has become a major concern due to climate change. Since the industrial revolution from the agricultural sector, CO2 emissions from deforestation and forest degradation have been growing rapidly which is one of the main reasons for the global climatic system changing. Anthropogenic land use change together with deforestation and forest degradation contributes about one-fifth of the global annual CO2 emissions, which was 0.9 Gt per year [1]. Global forest cover has been changing rapidly over the past few decades where the forest cover in tropical regions has reduced significantly by an annual reduction of 2101 square kilometers per year [3]. Over the last few decades, there has been no significant changes of the net carbon emission annually from deforestation [4]. According to Hansen et al [3], almost 2.3 million square kilometers of global forest land were lost within 2000 and 2012, while only 0.8 million square kilometers of forest were gained in this time period
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