Urban Population Growth, Per Capita Energy Use, and CO2 Emissions: Evidence from the World's fifth-most Populous Country

Abstract

Pakistan is the world’s 5th most populated country. This growing population is causing numerous social and environmental problems. By the increase in population, energy demand is increasing day by day. Pakistan, where majority of the population is living in rural areas is using uncleaned cooking fuel due to which CO2 emission is increasing that is further a cause of environmental degradation. Based on the data (for the period from 1980 to 2019) of World Development Indicators, this study intends to examine the association between urban population, and energy use with CO2 emission. Unit root test was applied to check stationarity of data and after checking the stationarity status of variables, ARDL (Auto regressive distributive lag model) techniques was applied on data. The outcomes of the study showed that trade openness, urbanization, and energy consumption have significant and positive effects on environmental degradation. This study suggest that government must plan population and take steps towards the use of clean cooking fuels to control environmental degradation.