EKC Relationship Research Articles

Unveiling the Influence of Climate and Technology on Forest Efficiency: Evidence from Chinese Provinces

The objective of this study is to examine the impact of climate and technology on forest efficiency (FE) in China’s provinces from 2002 to 2020. First, the study used SBM-data envelopment analysis (SBM-DEA) to estimate Chinese provinces’ FE using multidimensional forest inputs and outputs. The climate influence is assessed using temperature, precipitation, sunlight hours, and carbon dioxide levels in the second phase. A climate index was created using principal component analysis (PCA) for a complete estimation. In addition to prior research, we analyze the technology impact through two technological indicators: (i) research and development, and (ii) investment in forests. Furthermore, we explore the non-linear influence of economic development on both FE and climate quality. The regression study by CupFM and CupBC found that temperature and precipitation increase FE, whereas sunlight hours and carbon emissions decrease it. The positive association observed between Climate Index1, and the negative relationship noted for Climate Index2, suggests that forests positively influence climate conditions, signifying that an improvement in FE leads to an improvement in climate quality. Technology boosts forest productivity and climatic quality. The environmental Kuznets curve shows an inverted U-shape relationship between economic development and FE. Similarly, climate and economic development have an inverted U-shaped EKC relationship. Urbanization reduces FE due to human growth and activity. Our findings are important for forest management, climate change, and sustainable development policymakers and scholars.

The Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis for Colombia: Impact of Economic Development on Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Ecological Footprint

Climate change has become a significant concern for developing countries given the risk that it poses to energy and food independence, and to general productivity. Despite having an energy system with low carbon intensity when compared to other Latin American countries, Colombia is already facing climate change impacts and requires urgent efforts to mitigate them. As a developing country, the challenge is bigger as policies for economic growth should be in line with the global commitment of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. With the aim of contributing to the design of climate policies by using data driven methodologies and scientific evidence, this study assesses the impact of economic development on the environment by examining the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis for Colombia. Statistically validated and stable autoregressive distributed lag models are estimated for three different environmental indicators: carbon dioxide emissions, methane emissions, and the ecological footprint. Moreover, the effects of other variables such as urbanization, foreign direct investment, the value added by the agricultural and industrial sectors, and energy use are analyzed with dynamic simulations. To the best of our knowledge, there are no reports of EKC estimation using these variables in statistically validated models for Colombia; thus, this paper adds to the scientific evidence of the EKC hypothesis in developing countries. Empirical evidence supports a long-run equilibrium relationship among investigated variables and the existence of an inverted U-shaped EKC relationship between gross domestic product (GDP) and methane emissions, and GDP and the ecological footprint. The results of this paper show that shifting to renewable energy sources and leveraging the use of cleaner technologies in agricultural and industrial sectors are key factors for economic growth without harming the environment, which has important scientific value because of its evidence-based approach for public policy making in developing countries, particularly Colombia.

The nexus between e-commerce growth and solid-waste emissions in china: Open the pathway of green development of e-commerce

The growth of the e-commerce industry brings considerable waste. The Chinese government has begun to pay attention to the development of green e-commerce. We first analyze the nexus between China’s e-commerce industry and solid waste and hope to provide some insights into the development of green e-commerce. Considering the cross-sectional dependence of panel data, we adopt the second-generation panel unit root and cointegration tests. Furthermore, the empirical results from the DOLS show that the EKC quadratic curve exists in Whole & Eastern & Central & Western China. In Whole & Central & Western China, FDI will increase solid-waste emissions. In Central China, the market can significantly increase solid-waste emissions, and trade openness can reduce solid-waste emissions. The proportion of Eastern China’s secondary industry will substantially increase solid-waste emissions. Most of the eight major economic zones conform to the quadratic EKC curve except for three economic zones. The situation is as follows, In the Middle Reaches of the Yellow River, the development of e-commerce brings monotonically increasing solid-waste discharge. The EKC relationship does not exist in the Yangtze River’s middle reaches and Northwest Economic Zones. Research findings provide a perspective and basis for China to make regional green regulations to reduce the discharge of solid waste from e-commerce and open the pathway of green development of e-commerce.

Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis from lens of economic complexity index for BRICS: Evidence from second generation panel analysis

The present study contributes to the ongoing discussion on environmental sustainability, energy efficiency for the case of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa economies by investigating the dynamic connection regarding foreign direct investment, economic complexity index, renewable energy, natural resources, urbanization, and CO2 emission for annual frequency data from 1990 to 2019. The present study employs robust econometric techniques including Augmented Mean Group with Fully Modified-Ordinary Least Squares estimators as estimation techniques. Empirical outcome shows both inverted U-Shaped and N-Shaped EKC relationship between ECI and CO2 emission. The empirical findings also lend support to the Pollution Haven Hypothesis, which suggest that foreign direct investmentinflux is a contributing factor to environmental degradation in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa economies. Furthermore, renewable energy and the interaction between economic complexity index and urbanization is found to have adverse impact on emission while natural resources and urbanization have positive impact on the environment. Finally, the results from the Dumitrecu and Hurlin causality reveals a bi-directional causality between economic complexity and CO2 emission. Similar causality is found between economic complexity index and urbanization and CO2 emission while a one-way causality is seen running from foreign direct investment to CO2 emission over study period. These findings encourage authorities of the investigated countries to offer a broader energy strategy on alternative energies i.e., renewables improve Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa environmental quality. Furthermore, emphasis on economic strategies that foster a healthier manufacturing activity to engender environmental sustainability without compromise for economic prosperity should be pursued among the examined economies.

Impact of Time Trend and Heterogeneity on EKC in Asian Countries

The basic objective of the study is to investigate the shape of EKC for 39 Asian countries and income groups during the period of 1990-2015 with and without the use of a linear time trend variable. The study tests the validity condition of the mathematical model depicting an ‘N’ shaped EKC. Besides, the status of each country group is compared as per the expected emissions of GHG. The empirical investigation reveals that for both the overall and the high-income Asian group, the presence of a linear time trend variable renders EKC to be inverted U-shaped. However, eliminating the effect of time, the EKC becomes an ‘N’ shaped curve in agreement with a valid mathematical model. The middle-income Asian countries follow a monotonic increasing EKC relationship both in the presence and absence of a linear time trend. The computation of expected emissions of GHG demonstrates that the lower-middle-income group is expected to emit more among the three income groups followed by the high-income group and the upper-middle-income group.

The Environmental Kuznets Curve for Deforestation in Indonesia

This study provides empirical findings on the relationship between deforestation and income in 32 provinces in Indonesia. To enrich the discussion on deforestation, this study investigates the impact of the factors of population, roundwood production, land area, and main crop production on deforestation. The selected main crops in Indonesia are oil palm, coffee, coconut, rubber, and cacao. The results confirm the existence of the EKC relationship between deforestation and income in Indonesia. The study also finds that oil palm production positively affects tree cover loss, but the production of natural rubber has the opposite impact on deforestation.

Exploring the effects of climate-related financial policies on carbon emissions in G20 countries: a panel quantile regression approach

This paper studies the effects of financial development, economic growth, and climate-related financial policies on carbon emissions for G20 countries. The focus is particularly on financial policies implemented to scale up green finance and address climate-related financial risks from 2000 to 2017 and represent this paper’s value added. The empirical results obtained by relying on the panel quantile regression approach indicate that the impacts of the different explanatory variables on carbon emission are heterogeneous. Specifically, the effect of the stock of short-term financial policies on carbon emissions is negative, and its effect becomes smaller at higher quantiles. The stock of long-term policies also shows significant negative coefficients, but its impact is stronger for higher quantiles. No significance is reported for the lowest quantile. Financial development contributes to improving environmental quality, and its impact is larger in higher emission countries. Energy consumption increases carbon emissions, with the strongest effects occurring at higher quantiles. Our results also support the validity of the EKC relationship and positive effects of GDP and population on high carbon emissions levels. Estimation results are robust to alternative model specifications and after controlling for the role played by adopting international climate change mitigation policies as proxied by the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol.

Analysis of the Literature for Carbon Kuznets Curve

The aim of this study is to analyze the literature of EKC for the selected studies for the period 2002 to 2020 for income-energy-emissions nexus and provide research directions for the current literature. The result of this study shows that the general tendency in the literature is to examine the symmetric relationships between income and emissions, and the analysis of non-linear relationship between income and emissions should be increased. Although many variables are added to income-energy-emissions nexus to analyze the EKC relationship, the effect of external debt on the EKC relationships is not analyzed in the literature in detail. The effect of external debt on the EKC relationship should be analyzed for developed and developing countries. The analysis should be carried out more for developing countries than developed countries since developing countries may be financing their emission intense industries through external debt. For further research directions, this study recommends coal consumption should be analyzed instead of carbon emissions for the EKC relationship for developed and developing countries.

Natural gas consumption-economic output and environmental sustainability target in China: an N-shaped hypothesis inference.

On one divide, energy types have been linked with the varying degree of environmental damage. Another perspective argued on the severity of the damaged base on per capita and/or population consumption pattern. As such, this study investigates the nexus of per capita natural gas consumption-carbon dioxide emissions and per capita income-carbon dioxide emissions in the case of the People of the Republic of China. This study objectively expanded to illustrate whether the N-shaped environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis holds in the case of China or not. The employed autoregressive distributed lag bound testing approach incorporated additional explanatory variables (urbanization) within the N-shaped EKC hypothesis over the period 1971-2018. Importantly, the results show an evidence of inverted N-shaped EKC relationship. In addition, the study posits a positive relationship between natural gas consumption and carbon dioxide emissions and between urbanization and carbon dioxide emissions. Thus, the study proposes renewable energy development and decongestion of the urban centers as a means of controlling global warming.

Identifying the driving factors of NO2 pollution of One Belt One Road countries: satellite observation technique and dynamic spatial panel data analysis.

To recover the global economy, China in 2013 called for a new global strategy, namely, "One Belt and One Road Initiative" (BRI), which aims at reinforcing regional economic cooperation, enhancing regional collaboration of economic policy, and realizing the goal of rapid economic development of member countries. Accelerating industrialization not only has been recognized as an effective way to stimulate economic development, but also lead to the serious issue of environmental pollution, which challenges the environmental sustainability. In this study, we focus on the industrializing region as a study area to investigate the driving factors of environmental pollution. Technically, we utilized satellite observation technique to obtain NO2 columns data to denote environmental pollution and then applied dynamic spatial panel data models to evaluate what affects NO2 pollution levels. The findings are the following. (1) NO2 pollution exhibits significant and positive spatial autocorrelation, indicating spatial spillovers of NO2 pollution. (2) Lebanon, Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan, and India experienced the largest increase of NO2 pollution while NO2 pollution in Singapore, Hungary, Greece, and Ukraine was substantially reduced. (3) The results of the dynamic spatial panel data models show that both the time dynamics effects and the spatial spillover effects are found to be significant and positive. In other words, both effects should be considered. Population is the foremost contributor to increase NO2 pollution while urbanization is an effective way to reduce pollution. An EKC relationship between NO2 pollution and per capita income was verified. Besides, industrialization, foreign direct investment, and trade openness have positive impacts on NO2 pollution.

Spatial Effect of Industrial Energy Consumption Structure and Transportation on Haze Pollution in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region.

Haze pollution has a serious impact on China’s economic development and people’s livelihood. We used data on PM2.5 concentration, industrial energy consumption structure, economic development and transportation in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and surrounding cities from 2000 to 2017, and analyzed the spatial effect of industrial energy consumption structure and traffic factors on haze pollution by using spatial autoregressive model (SAR) and spatial error model (SEM). The results indicated that: (1) The global spatial correlation analysis showed that haze pollution had a significant positive spatial correlation, and the local spatial correlation analysis showed that the high-high clusters of PM2.5 were located in the south and middle of the region; (2) The change of industrial energy consumption structure was highly correlated with haze pollution, namely, the increase of industrial energy consumption led to the deterioration of environmental quality; (3) The change of economic development was highly correlated with haze pollution. There was no clear EKC relationship between haze pollution and economic development in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and surrounding cities. However, the relationship was similar to inverted U-shaped curve; (4) The change of traffic jam was highly correlated with haze pollution, namely, the increase of fuel consumption per unit road area led to the deterioration of environmental quality. Based on the above results, from the perspective of space, the long-term measures for haze control in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and surrounding cities can be explored from the aspects of energy conservation and emission reduction, industrial transfer, vehicle emission control, traffic restrictions and purchase restrictions.

Towards sustainable development in China: do political rights and civil liberties matter for environmental quality?

China is a rising power of the twenty-first century with its brilliant economic performance as a result of the transition to the free market economy model. However, China's economic development process has caused high environmental costs. For the past decade, China has been the leading country responsible for global carbon dioxide emissions (CO2). Therefore, determining the dynamics that have a reducing effect on CO2 emissions in China is very important for the development of sustainable environmental policies. This paper aims to examine the impacts of the institutional structure on environmental sustainability in China. To this end, the study follows the method of cointegration with multiple breaks that produce robust econometric results and consider structural changes. According to the results, (i) the validity of an N-shaped EKC relationship is supported between economic growth and environmental pollution. (ii) Industrialization and trade have an increasing impact on environmental pollution. (iii) Political rights and civil liberties have a reducing effect on environmental pollution. Consequently, this study implies that political rights and civil liberties can make an important contribution to achieving sustainability goals in China.

The impact of growth, energy and financial development on environmental pollution in China: New evidence from a spatial econometric analysis

This research examines data from 30 Chinese provinces from 1999 to 2017 to investigate the impacts of economic growth, energy consumption, and financial development on environmental pollution. Using spatial econometrics, we find that energy consumption has increased environmental pollution. Moreover, the direct effects of two indicators measuring financial development—financial depth and financial efficiency—on environmental pollution are directly negative and positive, respectively. Moreover, these two financial development indicators moderate the effects of technical progress and industry structure on environmental pollution differently. The “inverted N”-shaped environmental Kuznets curve relationship is well supported for SO 2 and solid waste. • We apply the spatial Durbin model using panel data from 30 Chinese provinces. • GRP per capita has an “inverted N”-shaped EKC relationship with SO 2 and solid waste. • Energy consumption leads to an increase in environmental pollution. • Financial development has direct and moderating effects on environmental pollution. • Financial development indicators have different effects on pollution emissions.

Spillover effects of economic globalization on CO2 emissions: A spatial panel approach

This paper investigates the spatial effects of economic globalization on CO2 emissions in a panel of 83 countries over the period 1985–2013. We apply the spatial panel method to address the problems of spatial dependency and the spillover effect among neighboring countries. First, the estimation results verify the existence of the spatial correlations in CO2 emissions across nations. Second, we find that the indirect effect of economic globalization on CO2 emissions is so significantly negative to overcome the positive direct effect, which implies a negative and significant total effect, so our results suggest that being surrounded by highly globalized countries has a positive effect on the environmental quality. Finally, we also find strong evidence for the inverted-U shaped EKC relationship between CO2 emissions and income.

PM2.5 mitigation in China: Socioeconomic determinants of concentrations and differential control policies

Elucidating the key impact factors on PM2.5 concentrations is crucial to formulate effective mitigation policies. In this study, we employed an extended Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population Affluence and Technology (STIRPAT) model to identify the socioeconomic determinants of PM2.5 concentrations for 12 different regions and across China. The evaluation was based on a balanced panel dataset integrating long-term satellite-derived PM2.5 concentrations and socio-economic data in China from 1999 to 2011. Empirical results indicate that the influencing factors can be ranked in descending order of importance as: proportion of secondary sector of the economy, GDP per capita, urbanization, population, energy intensity, and proportion of tertiary sector. Proportion of secondary sector is the greatest contribution to increasing PM2.5 concentrations, especially for heavily polluted regions. GDP per capita is secondary in importance, and its impact is weakened by the existence of an EKC relationship between GDP per capita and PM2.5 concentrations. Therefore, PM2.5 pollution is an economic development mode problem, rather than a general economic development problem. The impact of urbanization varies across regions; while promoting urbanization will be conducive to decreased PM2.5 concentrations in Northwest China and Northeast China, it will contribute to increased PM2.5 concentrations in other regions. Population and energy intensity are significant in most regions, but neither are decisive factors because of the small absolute value of their coefficients. Finally, different combinations of mitigation policies are proposed for different regions in this study to meet the mitigation targets.

The dynamic relationship between structural change and CO2 emissions in Malaysia: a cointegrating approach.

The current study investigates the dynamic relationship between structural changes, real GDP per capita, energy consumption, trade openness, population density, and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions within the EKC framework over a period 1971-2013. The study used the autoregressive distributed lagged (ARDL) approach to investigate the long-run relationship between the selected variables. The study also employed the dynamic ordinary least squared (DOLS) technique to obtain the robust long-run estimates. Moreover, the causal relationship between the variables is explored using the VECM Granger causality test. Empirical results reveal a negative relationship between structural change and CO2 emissions in the long run. The results indicate a positive relationship between energy consumption, trade openness, and CO2 emissions. The study applied the turning point formula of Itkonen (2012) rather than the conventional formula of the turning point. The empirical estimates of the study do not support the presence of the EKC relationship between income and CO2 emissions. The Granger causality test indicates the presence of long-run bidirectional causality between energy consumption, structural change, and CO2 emissions in the long run. Economic growth, openness to trade, and population density unidirectionally cause CO2 emissions. These results suggest that the government should focus more on information-based services rather than energy-intensive manufacturing activities. The feedback relationship between energy consumption and CO2 emissions suggests that there is an ominous need to refurbish the energy-related policy reforms to ensure the installations of some energy-efficient modern technologies.

A disaggregated analysis of the environmental Kuznets curve for industrial CO2 emissions in China

The present study concentrates on a Chinese context and attempts to explicitly examine the impacts of economic growth and urbanization on various industrial carbon emissions through investigation of the existence of an environmental Kuznets curve. Within the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology framework, this is the first attempt to simultaneously explore the income/urbanization and disaggregated industrial carbon dioxide emissions nexus, using panel data together with semi-parametric panel fixed effects regression. Our dataset is referred to a provincial panel of China spanning the period 2000–2013. With this information, we find evidence in support of an inverted U-shaped curve relationship between economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions in the electricity and heat production sector, but a similar inference only for urbanization and those emissions in the manufacturing sector. The heterogeneity in the EKC relationship across industry sectors implies that there is urgent need to design more specific policies related to carbon emissions reduction for various industry sectors. Also, these findings contribute to advancing the emerging literature on the development-pollution nexus.

Impacts of regional productivity growth, decoupling and pollution leakage

ABSTRACTImpacts of regional productivity growth, decoupling and pollution leakage. Regional Studies. This paper examines the issues of decoupling regional economic growth and pollution and the extent to which pollution effects spillover regional/national borders. Specifically, a UK, regionally disaggregated, computable general equilibrium (CGE) model is used to investigate the relationship between economic growth and the level of CO2 emissions posited by the ‘environmental Kuznets curve’ (EKC) conjecture using production accounting principle (PAP) and consumption accounting principle (CAP) environmental accounting methods. The simulation results suggest that at the regional level the existence of an EKC relationship depends on the source of regional growth and the how this relationship is specified.

Testing Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis at Firm Level in India

All over the world, deterioration of environmental quality has been considered as a hot issue. The growing number of industries is one of the major reasons for the enhanced level of pollution and fast degradation of environmental resources. This situation urges the corporates to involve themselves in socially responsible activities and to periodically assess the ecofriendly technologies. This paper proposes to investigate the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis, with reference to sample companies listed in BSE S&P – 500, over the period 1 st April 2005 to 31 st March 2014. In order to determine the existence of EKC relationship, the sign and magnitude of regression coefficients were analyzed. The results exhibited U shaped relationship for ROE, ROCE, and ROS. At the same time, EKC relationship, by way of inverted U shaped curve, was found for ROA. Based on the empirical findings of this study, some suggestions have been put forward to the corporates and policy makers, to control the level of energy intensity, by implementing eco-friendly technologies.

Trade, FDI, Growth and Biodiversity: An Empirical Analysis for the Main OECD Countries

Whether the Environmental Kutznets curve relationship holds for biodiversity or not remains an open issue. While there are several studies investigating the EKC relationship for biodiversity, they suffer from some limitations and the empirical evidence is inconclusive. More specifically, with few exceptions, the previous EKC studies for biodiversity looked into the diversity of a particular species or a number of species rather than a broader measure of biodiversity. In addition, these studies do not control for some economic factors that could directly or indirectly affect the biodiversity stock such as trade and foreign direct investments (FDI). International trade, in fact, could influence the biodiversity trough the effects on economic growth, production specialization and technological innovation diffusion. The presence or not of FDI in a country could be of help in assessing the “pollution haven” hypothesis that has obvious feedbacks on biodiversity. The innovative features of this paper are its attempts to estimate a ECK for biodiversity using an overall index of biodiversity terrestrial and marine and the inclusion in the traditional ECK equation of proxies for trade and FDI. According to our estimates for the main OECD countries in the period 1990-2010, the ECK hypothesis is partially verified. Rising incomes are first associated with increasing biodiversity then with decreasing biodiversity and eventually with increasing biodiversity again. This non-monotonic relationship could be explained by the fact that a certain level of income (production) there may be some biodiversity losses that cannot be continuously substituted with environmental-friendly production technology due to ecological threshold and the unique nature of the damage.