The effects of population aging, life expectancy, unemployment rate, population density, per capita GDP, urbanization on per capita carbon emissions

Abstract

Human-induced carbon dioxide emissions (CO 2 ) is the main source of global warming. This work is aimed to systematically explore the effects of human factors on CO 2 . To this end, this paper investigates the effects of population aging, life expectancy, population density, unemployment rate, per capita GDP, urbanization on per capita CO 2 using linear panel data analysis and panel threshold regression approach for 154 countries. The results show that there is no threshold value between unemployment rate and per capita CO 2 , and between urbanization and per capita CO 2 , indicating that the effects of unemployment rate and urbanization on per capita CO 2 is linear. Urbanization contributes to the increase in per capita CO 2 , which is offset by the unemployment rate. In addition, there are threshold values between aging and per capita CO 2 , between life expectancy and per capita CO 2 , between population density and per capita CO 2 , and between per capita GDP and per capita CO 2 . This means the effects of aging, life expectancy, population density, per capita GDP on per capita CO 2 are nonlinear. The contribution effect of per capita GDP on per capita CO 2 decreases with the increase in per capita GDP. The inhibitory effects of population aging, life expectancy on per capita CO 2 increase with the increase in the degree of aging and life expectancy, respectively. Whereas the inhibitory effect of population density on per capita CO 2 decreases with increase in the population density. The empirical analysis of 154 countries further confirms the complexity and heterogeneity of the impact of human factors on carbon emissions.