Environmental Kuznets Curve for carbon emissions in Pakistan: An empirical investigation

PurposeDue to large amounts of coal burning, huge carbon dioxide emission and poor environmental quality, it is important to identify whether environmental Kuznets curve exists in China and India since in downward period of environmental Kuznets curve, economic growth in these countries will largely contribute to world environmental quality. Further, it helps to make a comparative analysis between China and India on how economic growth will contribute to the environmental quality in both upward and downward period of environmental Kuznets curve due to energy consumption.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses the data of carbon dioxide emission, per capita GDP and energy consumption from 1972 to 2017 to identify individual and panel-level environmental Kuznets curve of China and India. Before going to regression and causality analysis, unit root and cointegration tests are performed.FindingsThis study finds the existence of environmental Kuznets curve in China and India at both individual and panel level. Further, due to high energy consumption, environmental quality in China will deteriorate at a lower rate in the long run than that of India. Next, the increase in economic growth or per capita GDP in the long run will deteriorate environmental quality at a lower rate in China than that of India. Besides, with the zero level of energy consumption and per capita GDP, the environmental quality of China will be worse than that of India. However, increase in per capita GDP after threshold level will improve environmental quality in India at a higher rate than that of China.Research limitations/implicationsIt helps to formalize the comparative relationship between the two large Asian economies by knowing the influence of economic growth on environmental degradation due to energy consumption. However, this study cannot conclude exactly when China and India can avail the downturn in environmental Kuznets curve.Originality/valueIt firstly establishes a link among energy consumption, economic growth and environmental quality between China and India including comparative pace in both upward and downward period of environmental Kuznets curve.

The aim of the study is to address the relationship between environmental degradation and economic growth in Egypt. In this regard, the study examines the relationship between carbon dioxide emissions (CO2), economic growth (real GDP per capita), energy consumption, trade openness and population density employing Johansen cointegration analysis over time series data of 1980-2010. Specifically, the study investigates the existence of Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis, the relationship between CO2 emissions and real GDP per capita. The results of the study confirm the existence of long-run relationship between the variables. In addition, the study does not support the existence of EKC either in the short or the long run. Also, it is concluded that energy consumption is correlated positively with CO2 emissions, while trade openness and population are correlated negatively with it. Granger causality test indicates bilateral causality between economic growth and CO2 emissions and unilateral causality running from economic growth to energy consumption and from trade openness to economic growth. Important policy implications will be recommended based on these results.

The existence of environmental Kuznets curve: Critical look and future implications for environmental management

Rising environmental degradation and impact of foreign direct investment: An empirical evidence from SAARC region

This article examines the short- and long-run association among carbon emissions, energy consumption and economic growth through deploying the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) using combined (aggregated) and separated (disaggregated) energy consumption data for Zimbabwe from 1980 to 2014. The ARDL bounds tests and Johansen cointegration tests found long-run relationships among the variables. In the long-run, total energy consumption and primary coal consumption produce statistically significant positive relationships with carbon emissions. However, petroleum consumption demonstrates a statistically significant negative association with carbon emissions. The results show the validity of the EKC in total energy and primary coal consumption in the long-run but are invalid for petroleum consumption. In the short run, the findings reveal that total energy, primary coal and petroleum consumption have statistically significant positive relationships with carbon emissions. Furthermore, in the short run, the EKC is evident in petroleum consumption but invalid in both total energy and primary coal consumption. The short- and long-run Granger causality tests results based on the VECM are also discussed. The article concludes that, if carbon emissions are to be reduced in developing economies, alternative energy sources in the form of green technologies should be adopted as substitutes for coal and petroleum.

India's sustainable development goals consist of higher economic growth through large investments on the one hand and ambitious carbon emission reduction plans through increased renewables on the other. It needs to be seen if the two policies related to capital formation and energy transitioning to renewables complement each other or if they have been divergent in the case of India. This paper studies the dynamic association between carbon dioxide emissions, economic growth, renewable energy (RE) consumption, and gross capital formation and tests for the existence of Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis for India over the time period 1970-2018. It also tries to see if there is any possible conflict between the economic and energy goals of the country by augmenting the interaction term between renewable energy consumption and gross capital formation in the EKC framework. The empirical results not only confirm long-run relationship among the underlying variables but also indicate an "N"-shaped EKC in the long run for India which is a departure from the traditional inverted U-shaped EKC hypothesis. Renewable energy consumption is found to reduce emissions, whereas gross capital formation and the interaction term between renewable energy consumption and gross capital formation are found to raise emissions in the long run. The study concludes that India needs to align its economic policy of "Make in India" with its energy policy so that investments under the former facilitate extensive penetration, adaptation, and usage of renewable energy. A policy dichotomy between the two goals may defeat India's Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) objective of drastic reduction in carbon dioxide emissions through increased renewables by 2030.

As the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide (CO2) has been under intensive studied in the last two decades. This paper addresses the research that whether the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) for CO2 emissions exists in G20 group—an international forum for governments and central banks from 19 countries and European Union. To analyze the studied relationship thoroughly, other four explanatory variables—two trade openness terms, the ratio of secondary industry value-added to GDP and population density—are employed to investigate whether they have any influences on the existence and shapes of EKC. In the empirical study, two multinational panel data sets covering the periods between 1960 and 2010 (50 years) and between 1990 and 2010 (20 years) are utilized, and the panel data fixed effects and generalized method of moments estimators are employed. The estimation results indicate that the EKC indeed exists in the G20 members as a whole. To investigate whether the existence of EKC depends on the level of economic growth, the G20 countries are further divided into two subgroups: developed and developing countries. Although the estimation results suggest that there exists EKC in developing countries during both 20- and 50-year period, there is no persuasive evidence to prove the existence of EKC in developed countries during the 20-year period. For the time periods we studied, most developed countries have seen relatively stable or even decreasing CO2 emissions, while for the majority of the developing countries, the peak of CO2 emissions could not be reached in the near future.

This study investigates the existence of long-run relationship between CO2 emissions, economic growth, energy use, and urbanization in Saudi Arabia over the period 1971-2014. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach with structural breaks, where structural breaks are identified with the recently impulse saturation break tests, is applied to conduct the analysis. The bounds test result supports the existence of long-run relationship among the variables. The existence of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis has also been tested. The results reveal the non-validity of the EKC hypothesis for Saudi Arabia as the relationship between GDP and pollution is positive in both the short and the long run. Moreover, energy use increases pollution both in short and long run in the country. On the contrary, the results show a negative and significant impact of urbanization on carbon emissions in Saudi Arabia, which means that urban development is not an obstacle to the improvement of environmental quality. Consequently, policy-makers in Saudi Arabia should consider the efficiency enhancement, frugality in energy consumption, and especially increase the share of renewable energies in the total energy mix.

The nexus among real income, energy consumption, financial development, and carbon emission has broadly conferred area in energy and environmental literature. However, there is no study in the literature which investigates the moderating role of financial development between real income, energy consumption, and CO2 emission in Pakistan. This study reveals the role of financial development as a moderator in the conventional environmental Kuznets curve (EKC). To achieve the objectives of this study, two approaches are employed, (i) with main effects and (ii) with interaction variables, using autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach in the case of Pakistan covering the period 1970 to 2016. Findings of the empirical analysis confirm the EKC hypothesis in the first case (without interaction effect) and our second estimations (with interaction effect) show that financial development significantly moderates the association of real output with CO2 emission (both for the long run and short run). The negative effect of financial development on carbon emission reveals to efficacious energy management with effective environmental performance. More precisely, the results of second estimations reveal that all three interaction variables are statistically significant but the EKC curve is no more. Thus, the current study proposes that the moderating effect of the financial sectors may be the possible reason which has been ignored by prior researchers and they found mix results regarding the existence of EKC in Pakistan. In addition, the Granger causality test confirms the feedback effect between real income and carbon emission and one-way causality from all the three interaction variables and financial development to CO2 emission. Lastly, this study posits some important policy inferences in the perspective of new economic policy formation in Pakistan.

Scholars warn that wealth leads to unsustainable environmental development. However, over the last decades, studies have shown an increase in environmental degradation at the initial stage of economic growth, and then a decline when economic growth reaches a certain level. This first acceleration and then deceleration create an inverted U-shaped curve between pollution and economic growth, called the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC). Environmental degradation can be measured by different factors. This paper deals with two of them, i.e. energy consumption and energy intensity (EI). The latter is measured as the ratio between energy consumption and GDP. The relationship of energy consumption and intensity to economic growth can serve as a tool for examining whether an EKC exists. The paper presents continuous series of energy consumption energy intensity and gross domestic product for the Norwegian mainland economy 1835–2019. The series are used to examine the possible existence of relative and absolute environmental Kuznets curves (EKC). Time series are established using available data and annual figures for 1835–2019, which are presented for the first time. They depict a development that, first, reflects an almost constant downward trend in EI, and, second, the existence of EKCs. The paper also proposes a polynomial regression model to discuss the relationship between environmental degradation as measured by energy consumption and intensity on the one hand, and economic growth on the other. It is concluded that there are both relative and absolute EKC-relations between environmental degradation and economic growth, with 1975 as relative and 2002 as absolute turning point.

This article examines the short- and long-run association among carbon emissions, energy consumption and economic growth through deploying the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) using combined (aggregated) and separated (disaggregated) energy consumption data for Zimbabwe from 1980 to 2014. The ARDL bounds tests and Johansen cointegration tests found long-run relationships among the variables. In the long-run, total energy consumption and primary coal consumption produce statistically significant positive relationships with carbon emissions. However, petroleum consumption demonstrates a statistically significant negative association with carbon emissions. The results show the validity of the EKC in total energy and primary coal consumption in the long-run but are invalid for petroleum consumption. In the short run, the findings reveal that total energy, primary coal and petroleum consumption have statistically significant positive relationships with carbon emissions. Furthermore, in the short run, the EKC is evident in petroleum consumption but invalid in both total energy and primary coal consumption. The short- and long-run Granger causality tests results based on the VECM are also discussed. The article concludes that, if carbon emissions are to be reduced in developing economies, alternative energy sources in the form of green technologies should be adopted as substitutes for coal and petroleum.

This article examined the relationships involving carbon emissions, economic growth and energy consumption by employing the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) in South Africa from 1980 to 2014. The auto regressive distributed lag approach and Johansen cointegration tests proved that the variables are cointegrated. The article findings show that combined (total energy consumption) and hydrocarbon gas and petroleum consumption demonstrates evidence of EKC in the long‐run. Other separated data (primary coal, secondary coal, and electricity consumption) show no evidence of the EKC in the long‐run. Primary coal, secondary coal, electricity and hydrocarbon gas consumption develop positive and statistically significant relationships with carbon emissions in the long‐run but the case of total energy and petroleum consumption was negative and statistically significant. The short‐run results illustrate that combined (total energy consumption) and hydrocarbon gas consumption indicate evidence of EKC. Other separated data (primary coal, secondary coal, electricity, and petroleum consumption) show no evidence of the EKC in the short‐run. Short‐run results also indicated that total energy, primary coal, secondary coal, and electricity consumption report positive and statistically significant relationship with carbon emissions but hydrocarbon gas and petroleum consumption indicate positive but insignificant associations. Granger causality test based on vector error correction method (VECM) are also presented to ascertain causality. © 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 38: 30–46, 2019 Highlights The EKC hypothesis was examined in South Africa by employing energy combined and separated data. The EKC is supported in energy combined data in both short and long‐run but varies in separated data. Primary coal, secondary coal, electricity and hydrocarbon gas consumption develop positive and statistically significant relationships with carbon emissions in the long‐run. Total energy and petroleum consumption generate negative and statistically significant associations with carbon emissions in the long‐run. Total energy, primary coal, secondary coal and electricity show positive and statistically significant relationship with carbon emissions in the short‐run. Hydrocarbon gas and petroleum consumption indicate positive but insignificant association with carbon emissions in the short‐run. Granger causality tests based on VECM are also discussed.

Carbon emissions, energy consumption and economic growth: Evidence from the agricultural sector of China's main grain-producing areas

Environmental damage is a topic of great concern among researchers and receives special attention in global circles. One of the major contributors to environmental damage is the emission of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide. In this research, the influence of corruption on carbon emissions in six ASEAN countries is investigated, using indicators of economic growth, renewable energy, and urbanization. The Fixed Effect Model is used as the method of analysis, and the research data used is from 1996 to 2019, based on its availability. The research findings suggest that there is an existence of Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) in the form of an inverted U relationship. Renewable energy has a negative effect, while urbanization has a positive effect on carbon emissions. Additionally, control of corruption has been found to have a positive effect on carbon emissions. Based on these findings, it is essential to promote maximum economic growth, use renewable energy, limit urbanization, and increase control of corruption to help mitigate carbon emissions and environmental damage.

ABSTRACTThis study examines the long- and short-run relationship between carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, economic growth, energy consumption, foreign trade, and urbanization based on the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis in Malaysia for the period 1980–2008. This study employs the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) methodology for empirical analysis. The results obtained suggest the existence of three forms of long-run relationships among variables when CO2 emissions, foreign trade, and urbanization are the dependent variables. The long-run results support the EKC hypothesis, which assumes an inverted U-shaped relationship between income and environmental degradation. Moreover, both energy consumption and urbanization are found to have positive effects on CO2 emissions in the long run, while trade has a negative effect on CO2 emissions in both short and long runs. The stability of the variables in the estimated model is also examined. Results suggest that the estimated model is stable over the study period.