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

Abstract

Against the backdrop of the great challenge of climate change and growing global environmental concerns, this study deals a systematic literature review of research related to Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) from 1991 to 2023, details the background, definition, significance, critiques, theoretical foundations and model specifications of EKC, and summarizes the data, variables, econometric methods and findings used in over 100 EKC studies. This study focuses on EKC studies that examine the relationship between energy consumption, economic growth and environmental degradation, with most of the studies reviewed using global pollutants (carbon emissions) to measure the level of environmental degradation. This study found that EKC still has great research potential, and with the development of energy diversification, energy consumption in EKC studies have been further subdivided into renewable or non-renewable energy consumption; innovative EKC studies in the last few years have favoured the use of novel environmental and economic indicators and econometric method, and have validated the existence of EKC at the sectoral level rather than the national level. Finally, the present study summarizes the development and innovations of EKC and provides suggestions for future research aimed at advancing the development of EKC and environmental management.