Decoupling Of Economic Growth Research Articles

Dynamic interactions between GDP, renewable energy, innovation, and CO2 emissions in Finland: a fourier-augmented ARDL analysis

This study uses the novel Fourier-augmented ARDL (FARDL) to explore the impact of renewable energy (REN), the number of patent applications (PA) and GDP per capita on CO2 emissions in Finland during 1990–2022. The findings reveal that in the long run, GDP rises CO2 emissions, while REN and PA decrease CO2 emissions. The FARDL short-run results indicate that both REN and PA have a significant negative impact on CO2 emissions, suggesting that higher adoption of renewable energy and technological innovation contribute to emission reductions. However, GDP does not show a significant effect in the short run, which may indicate a decoupling of economic growth from environmental degradation in the short term. Furthermore, the study highlights the need for policies that promote technological innovation and increased investment in renewable energy to achieve sustainable carbon reduction in the long term.

Carbon emission constraint: A catalyst for the shift from real economy to financialization?

AbstractThe goals of carbon peak and carbon neutrality have gained significant attention in China. Carbon‐intensive corporates are tasked with decoupling economic growth from carbon emissions. This research examines their potential for financialization based on the compulsory fulfillment requirement of carbon emission allowances and the emission‐free characteristics of financial assets. This research finds that carbon emission policy significantly promotes corporates to allocate more capital toward business operations in the real economy. It leads to an increase in capacity utilization efficiency and profitability for the main business. The findings support that the policy has a positive impact on the real economy.

Connection between urbanization and CO2 emissions in South Africa: does global uncertainty matter?

Purpose Given the interest in sustainable development, this study aims to assess the relationship between CO2 and urbanization as well as the role of world uncertainty in this association in a South African context. Design/methodology/approach This study focuses on yearly data from 1968 to 2020. To do this, the authors use the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach. Findings The authors find that urbanization’s effect on CO2 emissions is only significant when it is augmented with world uncertainty. Moreover, this effect is negative (referring to a reduction in CO2 emissions). Meanwhile, the authors find that GDP has a positive (that is, increasing) and significant effect on CO2 emissions. Overall, policymakers should focus on decoupling economic growth from traditional fossil fuels that produce greenhouse gas emissions. Originality/value The existing body of research contains numerous studies examining the relationship between urbanization and CO2 emissions. However, the dearth of research on the impact of global uncertainty on this connection is weak. Hence, this study aims to fill this gap and make a significant contribution to the field.

Decoupling Economic Growth from Carbon Emissions in the Yangtze River Economic Belt of China: From the Coordinated Regional Development Perspective

Decoupling economic growth from carbon emissions is crucial for combating the climate crisis and promoting green development. However, a uniform approach to climate mitigation exacerbates regional disharmony. As a microcosm of China’s regional heterogeneity, the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) is helpful in exploring regional collaborative climate governance. This paper uses the Thiel index, the Tapio decoupling model, and the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) decomposition approach to explore the decoupling of economic growth from carbon emissions in YREB from 2005 to 2019. Results indicate that the carbon intensity difference is mainly from the difference within middle-rising provinces (MRP) and western less-developed provinces (WLP). YREB exhibits strong decoupling overall, but it is not sustained. The economic growth effect significantly promotes carbon emissions, which is more prominent in MRP. The energy intensity effect plays a vital role in restraining carbon emissions. The emission factor effect signals an improved energy structure in WLP. Regional coordination is needed to achieve green development; thus, provinces should set differentiated carbon emission reduction targets, and more potent tools are recommended in major carbon emitters.

Decoupling Economic Growth and Carbon Footprint: An Empirical Analysis of Ghana's Export Sector, Manufacturing, and Renewable Energy Adoption

Decoupling Economic Growth and Carbon Footprint: An Empirical Analysis of Ghana's Export Sector, Manufacturing, and Renewable Energy Adoption

Value-based Identification of Eco-effective Mitigation Options for Manufacturing Processes

To avoid net greenhouse gases and decouple economic growth from resource use, manufacturers strive for solutions minimizing their emissions in operation whilst maximizing the perceived value to their customers offered by a product. One approach is the deployment of new manufacturing processes. The potential of these innovations is often limited to more eco-efficient solutions. However, current developments, e.g. global climate change and legal constraints, require engineering to broaden its focus on eco-effective solutions, covering function and system innovations and behavior change. Therefore, a methodology to identify eco-effective mitigation options for manufacturing processes is presented. By using the extended IPAT identity, the solution space for manufacturing processes to increase eco-effectiveness is highlighted. To consider behavior change, the concept of perceived value is embedded. The methodology is demonstrated on the example of additive manufacturing. The objective is to support engineers in identifying and evaluating market-relevant mitigation options for manufacturing processes addressing eco-effectiveness.

Multiscale levels CO2 decouple reinforcement in China.

Decoupling economic growth from CO2 emissions is imperative for China. Meanwhile, establishing a consistent and comprehensive decoupling inventory that includes national (N), regional and provincial (RP), and city and county (CC) levels is essential for further policy formulation. This research aims to investigate the decoupling status using the "N-RP-CC" approach while considering changes in decoupling trends at the different levels. A combination of the Tapio decoupling model and cluster analysis is employed to study the decoupling's spatiotemporal characteristics and trends. The study first calculates the decoupling value for "national, 7; regions, 30; provinces, 1501 CCs" in China, 2006-2017. The results show that there continues to be an improvement in the decoupling trend at the national level. Conversely, the regional scale exhibits a more vulnerable decoupling trend compared to the national level, with weak and extended negative decoupling observed in northeastern and northern China. Moreover, provincial heterogeneities are increasingly evident, with poor decoupling statuses appearing in Jilin, Heilongjiang, Liaoning, and Xinjiang, as well as many central provinces. Additionally, although more than half of CCs exhibit weak decoupling during most years, seven different states of decoupling were also identified during the time frame. These findings further indicate that spatiotemporal heterogeneities extend beyond RP scales within CCs. Taking the Yangtze River as a boundary line reveals a severe situation in northern areas along with rapid development trends observed in southern regions. Finally, we clustered 1414 CCs based on their industrial proportions for 2017 which further highlights increasingly prominent heterogeneities that should be carefully considered. Based on these findings, policy recommendations such as spatial organization and optimization and technique investment are proposed to achieve CO2 emission decoupling under the N-RP-CC levels.

Does reducing income inequality promote the decoupling of economic growth from carbon footprint?

Mitigating climate change, improving economic growth, and reducing income inequality are three of Sustainable Development Goals (17 SDGs). It has been well understood that economic growth has a significant impact on carbon footprint, but it remains unclear whether this impact will be mitigated or intensified by reducing income inequality. By applying the Multi-Regional Input-Output model, this study assesses the consumption-based carbon footprints of 43 major economies over the period 1995–2019 and conducts the corresponding empirical analysis. Through examining the moderating effect of income inequality (Gini coefficient) on the relationship between economic growth (GDP per capita) and consumption-based carbon footprint (CO2 per capita), we demonstrate that a lower Gini coefficient – a more equitable distribution of income − could significantly promote the decoupling of economic growth from carbon footprint. The results also show a heterogeneous moderating effect of income inequality – reducing income inequality in rich countries helps decouple economic growth from carbon footprint more than in poor countries. This study contributes to a better understanding of the synergy among economic growth (SDG 8), income inequality reduction (SDG 10), and carbon mitigation (SDG 13). Given that reducing income inequality in the context of economic growth can have significant benefits for carbon mitigation, we would suggest that income inequality reduction should be incorporated into climate action, particularly in rich countries.

The Evaluation of Energy Efficiency and its Decoupling from Economic Growth under the Carbon Peak Target

Abstract The Global Malmquist-Luenberger index was used to measure the energy efficiency of 11 provinces and regions in eastern China from 2010 to 2019, the Tapio decoupling model was constructed to analyze the decoupling relationship between economic growth and energy consumption and energy use efficiency, and the prediction results of the carbon peak time of each province in the existing literature were combined to put forward suggestions for the provinces that were not ideal for the decoupling. The results show that: (1) The total average energy efficiency of the 11 eastern regions of China during the period from 2010 to 2019 was 0.911, showing an overall upward trend, while the energy efficiency changes in each region were different; (2) The decoupling of economic growth, energy consumption and energy efficiency in Hebei and Hainan provinces was not ideal, and the decoupling in other regions was getting better; (3) There will be a large gap in the time of carbon peak in 11 regions in eastern China. Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Liaoning will achieve carbon peak in 2030 and before; There will be no peaks in Hebei and Hainan regions, while the peaks in Shandong and Fujian appear after 2030. JEL classification numbers: F06. Keywords: Carbon peak, Eastern region, Energy efficiency, Tapio decoupling model, Directional distance function, Global Malmquist-Luenberger index (GML).

Examining the Decoupling of Economic Growth with Land Expansion and Carbon Emissions in Zhejiang Province, China

Coordinating the interrelationships among economic growth, land resource utilization, and carbon emissions is critical for promoting high-quality economic growth and achieving sustainable urban progress. According to the gravity model and the Tapio decoupling model, this study examined the decoupling relationships of economic growth with land expansion and carbon emissions in Zhejiang Province during the period of 2002–2017. We found that (1) The economic gravity center and the built-up area gravity center generally shifted towards the northwest; however, the carbon emission gravity center initially shifted towards the northwest and then towards the southwest. The spatial coupling between the economic gravity center and the built-up area gravity center exhibited a tendency of ‘first weakening, then strengthening, and last weakening’, whereas the spatial coupling between the economic gravity center and the carbon emission gravity center displayed a tendency of ‘first strengthening and then weakening’. (2) The decoupling of economic growth and land expansion is weak at every stage with effective controls on land expansion. However, in recent years, the phenomenon of ‘expansive negative decoupling’ has become prevalent in counties and cities surrounding the central city. The decoupling of economic growth and carbon emissions steadily increased at each stage, first ‘expansive coupling and expansive negative decoupling’, then ‘weak decoupling’, and finally ‘strong decoupling’. The urban low-carbon transformation effect is remarkable. (3) Zhejiang Province should prioritize addressing the regional imbalance and state instability in the decoupling relationships. It is crucial to comprehensively consider the natural resource endowment, macro-policy factors, and urban development orientation of counties and cities while implementing differentiated planning and control strategies, which will promote regional coordination and comprehensive, high-quality development in all areas.

Financial expansion and CO2 mitigation in top twenty emitters: Investigating the direct and moderating effects of the digital economy

The top twenty carbon-emitting nations contribute around 80% to global CO2 emissions. The transformation of business operations, products, and services through establishing a digital economy (DGE) might help these nations to accomplish Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and carbon neutrality. However, digitalization poses certain direct and indirect effects on the environment, and also emissions and digitalization levels vary across nations. Further, the decoupling of economic growth and emissions makes it very challenging to reduce emissions without decreasing economic growth. Against this background, this research assesses the impacts of DGE and financial expansion (FE) on emissions in the top twenty emitters by considering the direct effect of DGE as well as its indirect effects through economic growth. The newly proposed method of moment quantile regressions (MM-QR) is adopted to unveil the associations between variables by accounting for distributional and heterogeneous variations in variables from 2003 to 2019. The novel findings demonstrate that DGE significantly boosts emissions. However, the indirect effects of DGE on emissions through economic growth reduce emissions and thereby, stimulate environmental quality. Interestingly, both direct and indirect effects of DGE are noticeable only from quantiles 6 to 9 and these impacts exhibit an increasing trend. FE decreases CO2 and uplifts environmental quality in all quantiles without much variation. Economic growth (GR) augments CO2; however, the magnitude of its effects reduces from lower to upper quantiles. Population density (PDN) alleviates environmental deterioration and its effects intensify from lower to upper quantiles. Afterward, the Driscoll-Kraay (DK) regression test confirmed the results of the MM-QR. Based on these novel results, a policy framework is proposed to reduce electronic waste and accelerate digital penetration in different sectors of the economy to enhance resource-saving and achieve carbon neutrality.

Decoupling Economic Growth from Embodied Water–Energy–Food Consumption Based on a Modified MRIO Model: A Case Study of the Yangtze River Delta Region in China

Water, energy, and food are indispensable resources for socioeconomic development, and are highly interwoven in urban activities. Clarifying spatial differences in resource consumption is of great significance for coordinated management. However, there is still a lack of a unified assessment for water–energy–food (WEF) nexus flow analysis. This study proposes a comprehensive framework to investigate WEF utilization based on a modified multi-regional input–output (MRIO) analysis. Taking the case of the Yangtze River Delta region, we first inventoried embodied water–energy–food consumption from 2012 to 2017. Then, decoupling analysis and the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) method were applied to explore decoupling states and identify driving factors. The results show that overall embodied WEF consumption experienced a downward trend from 2012 to 2017, and different provinces varied significantly. Jiangsu had the largest consumption of water and energy, while Anhui contributed a big chunk to food consumption. The manufacturing sector heavily relied on WEF resources and had a great impact on the ecological environment. The decoupling performance indicated a general trend of weak decoupling and strong decoupling in most provinces, with the mining, electricity, and gas supply sectors contributing most to positive decoupling, and the service sectors devoting the most to negative decoupling. As for resource type, water ecological footprint decoupled more than energy and food ecological footprints. Technology level and industrial structure had a major effect on the realization of decoupling, while economic output and population scale were the main restraining factors. Finally, we provide some differentiated policy recommendations for coordinated resource management.

Can using energy resources productively and promoting good governance boost carbon productivity? An economic growth-environmental degradation decoupling analysis on 116 global countries.

Decoupling economic growth from environmental pollution for promoting low-carbon growth has become a global objective. Though the previous studies have mostly analyzed how environmental pollution can be reduced, not much emphasis was given to assessing how economic growth can be enhanced while limiting environmental damages in tandem. Hence, this study examines how carbon productivity is determined by energy productivity improvement, good governance, financial development, financial globalization, and international trade using data from 116 global economies. Overall, the analytical findings reveal that energy productivity improvement initially cannot decouple economic growth from environmental pollution by inhibiting carbon productivity. However, later on, using energy productively doesmanage to decouple economic growth from environmental pollution by boosting carbon productivity. Accordingly, the U-shaped nexus between these variables is confirmedby these statistical findings. Besides, the results also endorse the carbon productivity-boosting effects of good governance, financial development, and international trade while foreign direct investment receipts are not found to exert any significant impact on carbon productivity. On the other hand, the robustness tests' results affirm that the carbon productivity-influencingimpacts are heterogeneous across countries belonging fromdifferent categories of national income, carbon productivity, energy productivity, governance, and regional locations, as well. Nevertheless, the results overallconfirm that countries having comparatively higher levels of energy productivity and governance are more likely to decouple the growth of their respective economies from environmental pollution. Based on these findings, some decoupling policies are recommended.

How does information and communications technology agglomeration affect the decoupling of economic growth and carbon emissions? Evidence from 257 cities in China

Decoupling economic growth and carbon emissions is essential for sustainable growth. However, the impact of ICT agglomeration, especially its long-term impact on decoupling, has received little attention. Drawing on the Tapio decoupling model and dynamic decoupling path theory, this study examines the short-term and long-term effects of ICT agglomeration on decoupling by using a panel data set for 257 cities in China from 2003 to 2017. The results show that most cities are in a state of weak decoupling (253/257) and on an intensive dynamic decoupling path (192/257). Our empirical analyses confirm that ICT agglomeration negatively impacts the short-term decoupling trend but positively impacts the long-term decoupling path. The mediating mechanism analysis indicates that ICT agglomeration affects decoupling by driving ICT infrastructure investment, promoting green technology innovation, and stimulating consumption of ICT equipment. Green technology innovation significantly drives decoupling in both the short-term and long-term impacts.

"Landscape" of energy burden: role of solid fuels in Central and Eastern European residential heating

Energy convergence, the decoupling of economic growth and energy use, and sustainable energy transition are all desirable objectives in the European Union. However, there are many contradictions and conflicts in the energy and climate policy that slow down the energy transition. In this paper, we focus on these barriers. A fuel-specific indicator is developed (share of household energy expenditure - SHEE) and used in the calculations. The main research objective is to measure the changes in the household energy mix in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and infer the degree of the energy transition in the household sector. For this purpose, Moore index and delinking factor are applied. The results shed light on the slowness of the just energy transition and confirm the presence of the dual fuel trap. The households in CEE have been stuck in the traditional biomass trap and beyond it, the natural gas consumption also contributes to higher exposure and vulnerability of households. We conclude that territorial differences and spatial characteristics of household energy use need more attention to achieve the energy and climate policy agenda of the European Union.

Articulating CO2 emissions limiting roles of nuclear energy and ICT under the EKC hypothesis: An application of non-parametric MMQR approach

Limiting toxic elements from being exposed to the world’s atmosphere has been the biggest challenge among environmental researchers and stakeholders. Climate change conferences have been counselling the global economies to take serious steps toward profound decarbonization to keep the universal temperature below 1.5 °C. In this context, the direction of environmental research has changed, and researchers are more focused on tracing how to limit pollution and keep it below the threshold level. In this milieu, nuclear energy can make a big difference along with other alternatives to fossil energy. Therefore, we extend the extant literature by exploring the dynamic effects of atomic energy and ICT on carbon emissions (CO2) for top nuclear energy countries using data from 1990 to 2017. To obtain robust findings, we deploy a novel non-parametric econometric approach (i.e., method of moments quantile regression). The results suggest that nuclear energy is a sustainable alternative to historical fossil fuel as it curbs CO2 emissions in the lower, middle, and upper quantiles. Furthermore, our findings corroborate that ICT penetration through the internet, mobile and telephone plays a vital role in improving environmental quality. Moreover, we unveil that linear economic growth jeopardizes the environment by unleashing harmful gases. The findings also support the existence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis by confirming the negative association between the polynomial economic growth (squared-GDP) and CO2 emissions among the designated nations. Also, the Granger causality test reaffirms the causal nexus among selected series that runs from nuclear energy and technological innovation to CO2 emissions, indicating that any policy shock in both series leads to environmental degradation. We, therefore, advocate that the designated territories keep enriching their energy baskets with nuclear energy and boost ICT penetration to achieve a 100% decoupling of economic growth from pollution.

The environmental Kuznets curve reconsidered

The environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis, whereby pollution first increases then decreases as income increases along an inverted U-shaped path, has generated a large literature beginning in the 1990s. The current analysis contributes to that literature in two main ways, one theoretical and one empirical. First, the theoretical inquiry begins with the idea that a variety of societal parameters may significantly impact the trajectory of environmental quality. We show that changes to production and consumption elasticity can be used to identify the environmental impact of changes to any of these parameters. Special attention is devoted to the cases of income and population growth as each is widely recognized as commanding significant influence over environmental quality. We find that for a wide class of constant elasticity of substitution (CES) models (where production technology and consumer preferences are both in a CES form) both income and population growth lead to degradation of environmental quality along an inverted U-shaped path. This common feature is due to the fact that both income and population have the same relative impact (in their unbounded limits) on production and consumption elasticity. Second, a large new dataset for 1789 sites over 38 years is assembled making it possible to overcome data shortcomings in earlier studies. When integrating the theoretical insights for population change into the empirical model formulation, our results find robust inverted U-shaped relationships for air pollutants with rising incomes and rising population density. These findings provide some added perspective on the claims and implications for the EKC literature and expectations about the possible decoupling of economic growth and environmental damages.

Decomposition, decoupling, and future trends of environmental effects in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region: A regional heterogeneity-based analysis

The green growth of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) urban agglomeration plays a leading and exemplary role in overcoming internal resource restrictions, addressing climate change, and supporting China's high-quality growth. From the standpoint of pollution reduction and carbon reduction, this paper first conducts a comprehensive evaluation of the environmental impact based on combined weighting technique. The Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) model is used to decompose the environmental impact drivers in distinct areas. A decoupling effort index is further constructed to measure the effect of various efforts on the decoupling of economic growth and environmental impact, the improved grey Markov model is applied to predict the future trend of regional decoupling efforts. The results of empirical analysis based on data of the BTH region during 2011–2018 show that: 1) the environmental impact index of Beijing is the lowest followed by Tianjin and Hebei; 2) environmental regulation exerts the most significant impact on reducing environmental pressure in Beijing while technology progress and energy intensity have the most significant effect on easing environmental pressure in Tianjin; 3) strong decoupling efforts have been found in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, however, such effect is more significant in Beijing; 4) Beijing's decoupling state is mostly driven by regulatory effect, intensity effect, and scale effect, while Tianjin and Hebei's decoupling states are primarily driven by improvements in environmental regulation and energy intensity; 5) according to the forecast outcome of the improved grey Markov technique, a state of strong decoupling effort will be maintained in the BTH area by 2025, and the decoupling effort index in Beijing will remain the highest while the index in Hebei will remain the lowest.

A Comparative Study of Carbon Pricing Policies in China and the Scandinavian Countries: Lessons for Effective Climate Change Mitigation with a Focus on Sweden

Under the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees by 2100, nations are taking steps to reduce carbon emissions. Carbon pricing is a popular policy instrument to mitigate carbon emissions. This paper presents a comparative analysis of carbon pricing policies in China and Scandinavian countries (Norway, Denmark, and Sweden), focusing on their impacts on the transportation, industrial, and building sectors. The study highlights that both regions have successfully implemented carbon pricing policies, combining carbon taxes with emissions trading systems, resulting in significant emissions reductions and decoupling of economic growth from greenhouse gas emissions. In the transportation sector, carbon pricing policies have driven the adoption of electric vehicles and cleaner fuels. In the industrial sector, these policies have led to investments in energy efficiency, fuel switching, and low-carbon technologies. In the building sector, carbon pricing has encouraged energy efficiency improvements and the adoption of low-carbon heating technologies. The paper underscores the importance of integrating carbon pricing policies with other energy and environmental policies, fostering public engagement, and designing robust monitoring, reporting, and verification systems to ensure their effectiveness in promoting low-carbon development.

Does the depth of the Financial Markets matter for establishing Green Growth? Assessing Financial sector's potency in decoupling Economic Growth and Environmental Pollution.

China's 2060 carbon neutrality agenda requires implementation of policies that can decouple its economic growth from environmental pollution. Consequently, establishing green growth in the Chinese economy is of utmost significance. Against this milieu, this study questions whether the depth of Chinese financial markets matters for establishing green growth in China. Besides, the green growth effects of renewable energy use, technological innovation, and urbanization are also examined. Accordingly, quarterly frequency data from 1990Q1 to 2020Q4 are utilized to perform econometric tests that accommodate structural break concerns in data. Overall, the findings reveal that the depth of the Chinese financial markets facilitates the prospects of greening the Chinese economy. Notably, deepening of financial markets is seen to initially inhibit green growth while stimulating it later on; thus, the financial markets' depth-green growth nexus is evidenced to depict a U-shape. On the other hand, green growth in China is also found to be catalyzed by the renewable transformation of the Chinese energy sector and through technological innovation in the long-run. Conversely, urbanization is witnessed to inflict anti-green growth impacts. Furthermore, the causality analysis verifies bi-directional causal associations between renewable energy use and green growth while unidirectional causalities running from financial markets' deepening, technological innovation, and urbanization to green growth are also discovered. Therefore, it is recommended that China should try to persistently develop its stock and debt markets so that clean investment can be boosted to decouple economic growth and environmental pollution. Besides, it is also important to undergo renewable energy transition, develop clean technologies, and design low-energy urbanization strategies.