Nuclear energy consumption and CO2 emissions in India: Evidence from Fourier ARDL bounds test approach

Abstract

This study uses data from 1970 to 2016 to analyze the effect of nuclear energy use on CO2 emissions and attempts to validate the EKC hypothesis using the Fourier Autoregressive Distributive Lag model in India for the first time. Because of India's rapidly rising population, the environment is being severely strained. However, with 22 operational nuclear reactors, India boasts tremendous nuclear energy potential to cut down on CO2 emissions. The EKC is validated in India as the significant coefficients of GDP and GDP.2 The short-run estimates also suggest that most environmental externalities are corrected within a year. Given the findings, some policy recommendations abound. The negative statistically significant coefficient of nuclear energy consumption is an indication that nuclear power expansion is essential to achieving clean and sustainable growth as a policy goal. Also, policymakers should enact new environmental laws that support the expansion and responsible use of nuclear energy as it is cleaner than fossil fuels and reduces the cost and over-dependence on oil, which ultimately leads to higher economic growth in the long run. Future research should consider studying the nonlinearities in the nuclear energy-CO2 emissions nexus as the current study is examined in the linear sense.