Environmental Kuznets Curve: Empirical Relationship between Energy Consumption and Economic Growth in Upper-Middle-Income Regions of China.

Shixiang Li,Qiaosheng Wu,Jianru Shi

doi:10.3390/ijerph17196971

Abstract

This paper examines the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) relationship between energy consumption and economic growth in upper-middle-income regions of China with the panel data of 21 provinces from 2000 to 2017. The influence mechanism of socio-economic factors on the EKC of these regions is also detected. The results show that the energy consumption EKC fitting map in these regions conforms to the classical environmental Kuznets curve, which is an inverted “N” type, and the inflection point is ahead and more accurate after adding spatial effects. The direct effect of energy consumption has delayed the inflection point, indicating that the level of industrialization, urbanization, and population density have a significant impact on EKC. At the same time, it is found that the level of industrialization and population density have a positive relationship with energy consumption, while the level of urbanization has a negative correlation with energy consumption. The spatial spillover effect of the indirect effects of total energy consumption, coal consumption, and crude oil consumption shows that the level of industrialization has a significant and negative link with EKC. The increase in the level of industrialization will affect the total energy consumption of neighboring areas and the consumption of coal and crude oil.

Highlights

Richard Smolley, the Nobel Prize winner pointed out that the energy issue is the number one priority when describing the top 10 global problems facing humanity in the 50 years
The latitude and longitude of each province are adopted for the geography, and the weight matrix of economy-geography nesting space used in this paper is calculated by STATA
Model 1, we can understand that at any time, the results of GDP are significant. This shows that the fitting results of total energy consumption, coal consumption, crude oil consumption, and natural gas consumption in the upper-middle-income region of China are all in line with the classical environmental

Summary

Introduction

Richard Smolley, the Nobel Prize winner pointed out that the energy issue is the number one priority when describing the top 10 global problems facing humanity in the 50 years. Among the Fortune Global 500 released in July 2018, 6 of the top 10 are energy companies, 5 of which are oil companies. This shows that energy is the basis for human survival and development and the driving force of the economy. According to the World Bank’s 2018 standards, GDP per capita is less than $995 for low-income countries, between $996 and $3895 for lower-middle-income countries, and between $3896 to 12,055 yuan for upper-middle-income countries, per capita GDP higher than 12,055 US dollars is a high-income country (World Bank, 2018). In 2018, there were 34 low-income countries (including Ethiopia, etc.,), 47 lower-middle-income countries (including India, Pakistan, etc.,), 56 upper-middle-income countries (including Russia, China, Brazil, etc.,), 81 high-income countries (including the United States, Japan, Singapore, etc.,).

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