Evidence Of Environmental Kuznets Curve Research Articles

The impact of aggregated and disaggregated fisheries production and licensed fishermen on fishing grounds footprint: A time series analysis

This study has examined the factors of fishing grounds footprint in Malaysia during 1961–2018, which has been used as the indicator of environmental degradation. The main contribution of this paper is that we have considered the role of aggregated and disaggregated fisheries production on pollution in the fishing industry. Another contribution of this study is that the environmental impact of activities of licensed fishermen has been examined. The results suggest that the total fisheries production and its components- capture fisheries production and aquaculture production generate an increase in fishing grounds footprint in Malaysia. The results suggest that an increase in total licensed fishermen facilitate an increase in fishing grounds footprint. There is mixed evidence on the impact of local fishermen on fishing footprint. The results indicate that an increase in foreign fishermen facilitate an increase in fishing grounds footprint. The results suggest mixed evidence for Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis.

Tourism, Economic Growth, and Environmental Pollution in APEC Economies, 1995–2020: An Econometric Analysis of the Kuznets Hypothesis

Tourism plays an important role in fostering economic growth within the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum member countries. Nevertheless, the development of this sector has resulted in significant depletion of natural resources and pollution. This research aims to determine the relationship between tourism, economic growth, and environmental pollution in both developing and developed APEC economies from 1995 to 2020. By adopting the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) framework, two dynamic panel data models are estimated employing Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS), and causal relationships are established using the Dumitrescu–Hurlin test. The results indicate that tourism and economic growth have had a positive influence on the rise of environmental pollution in both groups of economies during the specified period. This research offers new insights by analyzing twelve developing and nine developed APEC economies over a span of 25 years, estimating two DOLS models, conducting Dumitrescu–Hurlin causality tests, and presenting evidence of EKC for both types of economies. Consequently, the implementation of policies that foster the preservation of natural areas, the utilization of renewable energies, and the promotion of sustainable tourism practices is recommended.

Income Heterogeneity and the Environmental Kuznets Curve Turning Points: Evidence from Africa

The concept of environmental sustainability aims to achieve economic development while achieving a sustainable environment. The inverted U-shape relationship between economic growth and environmental quality, also called Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC), describes the correlation between economic growth and carbon emissions. This study assesses the role of agriculture and energy-related variables while evaluating the EKC threshold in 54 African economies, and income groups, according to World Bank categorization, including low income, lower-middle, upper-middle, and high-income in Africa. With 1990–2015 panel data, the results are estimated using panel cointegration, Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS), and granger causality tests. The results are: (1) The study validated the EKC hypothesis in the low-income, lower-, and upper-middle-income economies. However, there is no evidence of EKC in the full African and high-income panels. Furthermore, the turning points of EKC in the income group are meagerly low, showing that Africa could be turning on EKC at lower income levels. (2) The correlation between agriculture with CO2 is found positive in the high-income economy. However, agriculture has a mitigation effect on emissions in the lower-middle-income and low-income economies, and the full sample. Also, renewable energy is negatively correlated with emissions in Africa and the high-income economy. In contrast, non-renewable energy exerts a positive effect on emissions in all income groups except the low-income economies.

Testing the environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis for E-waste in the EU28+2 countries

This paper investigates the Kuznets Curve hypothesis for e-waste using a balanced panel of 30 European countries (EU28 + 2) over the period 2000–2016. To account for the dynamic and the time-invariant characteristics, we employed the generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator as a core method and used the 2SLS estimator and cross-section method to analyze the robustness of results. We found that the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis is well supported for e-waste generated in the EU28 + 2 area. In addition, this relationship is robust and is not sensitive to the choice of control variables and the estimation methods. All three methods evidenced EKC in e-waste for the studied European area. This reveals that e-waste generation increases with an increasing GDP up to a certain GDP level (turning point), but thereafter decreases despite further economic growth. While this suggests that e-waste generation and the related adverse environmental impacts will decline at elevated GDP levels, the results of this study highlight that the turning point occurs at rather exceptionally high levels of GDP. The evidence of EKC in e-waste contributes to better understanding the interlinkage between economic growth and e-waste generation, but it does not diminish the urgent need to implement effective e-waste collection and valorization schemes.

Industrial water pollution and transboundary eco-compensation: analyzing the case of Songhua River Basin, China.

As eco-compensation is considered an effective economic instrument for controlling the industrial water pollution in transboundary basin, this study aims to explore a transboundary eco-compensation mechanism for Songhua River Basin that is one of the seven major drainage basins in China. Using a panel dataset of eleven cities in this basin tracked from 1992 to 2016, we empirically examined the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis by analyzing the relationship between economic development and industrial water pollution. Then, we developed two econometric models to quantify the wastewater discharge allowance and eco-compensation of investigated cities, respectively. The results specifically reveal the inverted U-curve effects of GRP (gross regional product) on industrial wastewater discharge, which displays an evidence of EKC in the field of transboundary water pollution in China. Moreover, our results verify the polluter pays principle that polluter should be responsible for its pollution behavior through paying of eco-compensation. Our results further interpret that the emissions trading program can help protect the ecosystem by allowing the wastewater discharge allowance to trading market.

Do technology and structural changes favour environment in Malaysia: an ARDL-based evidence for environmental Kuznets curve

The current study is an effort to investigate the relationship between technological innovation, structural changes, and carbon dioxide emission (CO2) along with the energy use and economic growth in the context of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) over a period from 1985 to 2016. The study adopted the Zivot Andrews unit root test to check for the level of stationarity of the study variables. Based on the stationarity level, the study adopted autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach to cointegration to investigate the presence of long- and short-run associations, simultaneously. To confirm the outcome of the ARDL bounds test in the presence of structural breaks, the study further applied the Gregory Hansen test of cointegration. The results reveal that industry value added in Malaysia has no significant impact on CO2 emissions. The results further posit that improvement in technology can lead to a cleaner environment. Regardless of improvements in technology and insignificant pressure of industrial activities towards environment, the results are not in the favour of the EKC hypothesis neither under the conventional turning point formula nor under the new turning point formula. The results reveal that long-run CO2 emission is bidirectionally related to energy use, structural changes, and technological innovation. The short-run results indicate bidirectional causalities between energy consumption, structural change, and CO2 emissions. The study suggests that the government should overhaul the structure of the energy in Malaysia to overcome both the losses in the production process and to reduce carbon emissions by inspiring the induction of environment-friendly and efficient technologies in the production process and a shift towards more services sector economy. The outcomes of the study are according to the theory of ecological modernization.

Reducing carbon emissions: The role of renewable energy and democracy

Abstract The global economy continues to witness a consistent increase in carbon emissions, making it difficult to achieve the Paris agreement on climate change. To inform policies to mitigate carbon emissions, it is crucial to understand the factors that influence it. While there is a vast literature on the impact of economic growth on carbon emissions, empirical research on the impact of democracy and renewable energy on environmental quality in developing countries remains limited. Therefore, the goal of this paper was to examine the impact of democracy and renewable energy on carbon emissions for 46 sub-Saharan African countries using unbalanced data for the period of 1980–2015. Using an instrumental variable generalised-method of the moment, the study found that democracy and renewable energy reduce carbon emissions. Additionally, foreign direct investment, trade openness, population, and economic growth were the forces behind carbon emissions in sub-Saharan Africa. However, when democracy is accounted for, economic growth turns to reduce carbon emissions. No evidence of Environmental Kuznets curve was found. The results further indicated that the impact of urbanization on carbon emissions is indeterminate. These results are robust when alternative econometric estimation techniques were used. The study further demonstrated that the level of economic development matters when assessing the impact of these variables on carbon emissions. The study, therefore, recommends that democracy and investment in renewable energy should be given priority on Africa agenda to mitigate climate change.

Interrelationships among foreign direct investments, renewable energy, and CO2 emissions for different European country groups: a panel ARDL approach.

This study estimated unbalanced panel data analysis to investigate the relationship among CO2 emissions, GDP, renewable and non-renewable energy utilization, and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow in 26 European countries. Moreover, we investigated the role of environmental regulations in validation of the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH) in two EU country groups, namely 1-4th and 5th enlargement countries of EU, since their adaptation periods of environmental legislation may indicate differences. Empirical results confirmed the validation of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis and PHH for overall EU countries. However, results differ between country groups in EU. For example, while results confirm the evidence of EKC in 5th enlargement countries, they do not support in 1-4th enlargement countries. Moreover, while environmental regulations do not play an important role in the validity of PHH, they are important factors in the validity of EKC in overall EU countries. Granger causalities showed that economic growth causes energy consumption and FDI inflow. Since renewable energy mitigates the emissions, EU countries should enhance green technology and energy efficiency to ensure sustainable development. What is more, EU countries need to tighten the environmental regulations on FDI inflow. Therefore, our results support the new framework by European Commission on screening the FDI inflows throughout the EU zone.

Carbon emissions, diverse energy usage and economic growth in south africa: Investigating existence of the environmental kuznets curve (EKC)

This article examined the relationships involving carbon emissions, economic growth and energy consumption by employing the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) in South Africa from 1980 to 2014. The auto regressive distributed lag approach and Johansen cointegration tests proved that the variables are cointegrated. The article findings show that combined (total energy consumption) and hydrocarbon gas and petroleum consumption demonstrates evidence of EKC in the long‐run. Other separated data (primary coal, secondary coal, and electricity consumption) show no evidence of the EKC in the long‐run. Primary coal, secondary coal, electricity and hydrocarbon gas consumption develop positive and statistically significant relationships with carbon emissions in the long‐run but the case of total energy and petroleum consumption was negative and statistically significant. The short‐run results illustrate that combined (total energy consumption) and hydrocarbon gas consumption indicate evidence of EKC. Other separated data (primary coal, secondary coal, electricity, and petroleum consumption) show no evidence of the EKC in the short‐run. Short‐run results also indicated that total energy, primary coal, secondary coal, and electricity consumption report positive and statistically significant relationship with carbon emissions but hydrocarbon gas and petroleum consumption indicate positive but insignificant associations. Granger causality test based on vector error correction method (VECM) are also presented to ascertain causality. © 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 38: 30–46, 2019 Highlights The EKC hypothesis was examined in South Africa by employing energy combined and separated data. The EKC is supported in energy combined data in both short and long‐run but varies in separated data. Primary coal, secondary coal, electricity and hydrocarbon gas consumption develop positive and statistically significant relationships with carbon emissions in the long‐run. Total energy and petroleum consumption generate negative and statistically significant associations with carbon emissions in the long‐run. Total energy, primary coal, secondary coal and electricity show positive and statistically significant relationship with carbon emissions in the short‐run. Hydrocarbon gas and petroleum consumption indicate positive but insignificant association with carbon emissions in the short‐run. Granger causality tests based on VECM are also discussed.

Methane emissions, economic growth and agriculture: evidence of environmental kuznets curve for Argentina

Este documento proporciona evidencia de la existencia de una Curva ambiental de Kuznets (EKC) a largo plazo para Argentina desde 1970 hasta 2012, que es el país con mayor producción de carne en la región. Existe una relación dinámica entre las emisiones de metano, el crecimiento económico y las actividades agrícolas. La metodología autorregresiva del retraso distribuido se utilizó para probar la cointegración a largo plazo. Además, utilizamos el modelo de corrección de errores del vector para probar la causalidad y verificar el valor predictivo de las variables independientes. De hecho, se encontró una relación cuadrática entre las emisiones de metano y el crecimiento económico. El efecto de la agricultura fue el único inesperado, y eso se debe a la reducción de las emisiones de metano gracias a las políticas adecuadas relacionadas con el uso de la tecnología en la agricultura.

Economic growth, CO2 emissions and energy consumption: What causes what and where?

This paper applies panel vector autoregression (PVAR) along with a system-generalized method of moment (System-GMM) to examine the dynamic causal relationship between economic growth, carbon emissions and energy consumption for 116 countries over the period 1990–2014. Using multivariate model, the empirical results from this study have established key relationships which have important policy implications. First, at the global and regional levels, economic growth does not cause energy consumption. Second, with the exception of the global and Caribbean-Latin America, economic growth has no causal impact on carbon emissions, however, economic growth has a negative impact on carbon emissions at the global level and the Caribbean-Latin America. Third, carbon emissions positively cause economic growth. Fourth, energy consumption positively causes economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa while it negatively causes economic growth at the global, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Asia-Pacific and Caribbean-Latin America. Fifth, energy consumption positively causes carbon emissions in MENA but causes carbon emissions negatively in sub-Saharan Africa and Caribbean-Latin America. Lastly, with the exception of MENA and the global sample, carbon emissions do not cause energy consumption. The impulse response function shows evidence of Environmental Kuznets curve at the global scale and sub-Saharan Africa. The policy implications of this paper are discussed.

The impact of hydro-biofuel-wind energy consumption on environmental cost of doing business in a panel of BRICS countries: evidence from three-stage least squares estimator.

The renewable energy sources are considered the vital factor to promote global green business. The environmental cost of doing business is the pre-requisite to analyze sustainable policies that facilitate the eco-minded entrepreneurs to produce healthier goods. This study examines the impact of renewable energy sources (i.e., hydro energy, biofuel energy, and wind energy) on the environmental cost of doing business in a panel of BRICS (Brazil, Russian Federation, India, China, and South Africa) countries, for the period of 1995-2015. The study employed principal component analysis to construct an "integrated environmental index" by using three alternative and plausible factors including carbon dioxide emissions, fossil fuel energy consumption, and chemicals used in the manufacturing process. The environmental index is used as an interactive term with the three cost of doing business indicators including business disclosure index, the cost of business start-up procedures, and logistics performance index to form environmental cost of doing business (ECDB) indicators. The results of three-stage least squares (3SLS) estimator show that foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows supported the green business while trade openness deteriorates the environment, which partially validates the "pollution haven hypotheses (PHH)" in a panel of countries. There is no evidence for environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis; however, there is a monotonic decreasing relationship between per capita income and ECDB indicators. The hydro energy supports the sustainable business environment, while biofuel consumption deteriorates the environmental impact on the cost of business start-up procedures. Finally, wind energy subsequently affected the ECDB indicators in a panel of BRICS countries. The overall results conclude that growth factors and energy sources both have a considerable impact on the cost of doing business; therefore, there is a momentous need to formulate sustainable policy vista to magnetize green business across countries.

Natural gas consumption, income, urbanization, and CO2 emissions in China and India.

The objective of this study is to examine the impact of natural gas consumption, output, and urbanization on CO2 emission in China and India for the period, 1965-2013. A cointegraton test, which provides for endogenously determined structural breaks, has been applied to examine the long-run relationship and to investigate the presence of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) in the two countries. The presence of causal relationship between the variables is also investigated. The findings show that there is a long-run relationship in the variables and natural gas, real GDP, and urbanization have long-run positive impact on emission in both countries. There is no evidence for EKC in China and India. The findings further suggest that there is a long-run feedback relationship between the variables. The policy inferences of these findings are discussed.

Environmental quality, international trade and economic growth: the case of Malaysia

This paper examines the dynamic relationships between environmental quality, international trade and economic growth using annual data over the period of 1970-2011 for Malaysia. As such, we use GDP per capita and the square of GDP which we refer to as the scale and technique effect respectively, trade openness, energy consumption, composition effect and comparative advantage and CO2 emissions is the environmental quality indicator. We employ autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to examine long-run association as well as the quantile regression (QREG) approach to examine how the relationship at different conditional distributions of CO2 emissions. ARDL results confirm the presence of long-run relationship. The scale effects are positive while technique effects are negative confirming the existence of an inverted U-shaped curve that provides evidence for environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis for Malaysia. The turning point is estimated at around RM 27901.54 per capita. QREG results find the effect of CO2 emissions significant in the 90th percentile and the turning point is estimated around RM 28189.9 which is slightly higher than the one estimated for ARDL. Trade and composition effects reduce CO2 emissions which improves environmental quality while energy and comparative advantage increase CO2 emissions worsening environmental quality. This study provides a more comprehensive analysis and the robust findings may provide a basis for policy makers in designing environmentally sustainable trade and economic policies.

Examining the Empirical Evidence for Environmental Kuznets Curve in Jammu and Kashmir

The present examines the existence of Environmental Kuznets Curve between Ambient air quality and economic performance of Jammu and Kashmir. The study has taken time series macro-economic annual data spread over a period of 10 years from 2005 to 2014. The study uses unit root tests, Granger causality test and fully modified ordinary least squares (OLS) regression to arrive at the results. Results of the study confirm a bidirectional short-run relationship between Ambient Air Quality (AQL) and GSDP. Further, the results of Quadratic Fully modified ordinary least squares (OLS) regression shows the existence of an inverted U-curve relationship between AQL and GSDP.

Does Trade Liberalization Improve the Environment in China? Evidence Form the Dynamic Panel Data of Chinese Prefecture City

This paper employ GMM method introduced in [1] to reevaluate the environment effect of trade liberalization based on the dynamic panel data from Chinese Prefecture City during 1995-2010. We found that trade openness improve the environment quality measured by So2 emissions per capita, emission intensity of so2 and soot while no evidence in Soot emissions per capita. Specifically, even though the effect of import on environment is short-term and unsustainable, the export improve the environment more and more over time. Therefore the environment in China benefit from the trade liberalization regime and export-oriented strategy. In addition, this paper found the evidence of environmental Kuznets Curve and pollution haven hypothesis in some environment index.

A Literature Survey on Environmental Kuznets Curve

Abstract The relationship between environmental protection and economic development has long been a controversial issue. This paper presents a literature survey on Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC), which includes genesis, explanations and empirical evidence of EKC. The conclusion of this paper are, on the one hand, some factors are key reasons to EKC, including income elasticity of environmental quality demand, scale, technological and composition effects, international trade, FDI and history accidents, etc., on the other hand, from the empirical literature of EKC, the environmental quality indicators improved with public health. Moreover, Different data type will lead to different empirical result, so it is important to choose suitable indicators and data.

Environment and development: is there a Kuznets curve for CO2 emissions?

This article re-examines the relationship between growth in per capita income and environmental degradation using econometric techniques appropriate for smooth transition regressions with panel data. This is a more intuitive and flexible methodology than the polynomial models widely used in the literature, and it can reconcile some of the mixed results found previously. The methodology is applied to carbon dioxide emissions from nonOECD countries over the period 1971 to 1997. Although there is no evidence of environmental Kuznets curve, we find two regimes, namely a low-income regime where emissions accelerate with economic growth and a middle to high-income regime associated with a deceleration in environmental degradation.

Investigating the energy-environmental Kuznets curve

Abstract This paper investigates the relationship between absolute energy consumption and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita for 113 countries over the period 1971–2004. Energy has been scarcely explored in the Environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) debate and is taken as the indicator of overall environmental pressure. The following aspects of this work are rather innovative. Firstly, in order to closely adhere to the EKC narratives, the indicator of environmental pressure (energy) is taken in absolute terms rather than per capita. Secondly, we look for consistency both between different econometric techniques (parametric and semi-parametric) and across different analytical levels (world, time series/cross-countries, and single countries). Finally, the dataset is large and not limited to developed countries. In our opinion, the estimates cannot support an energy-EKC hypothesis. For the world as a single unit, the relationship is positive monotone, with a lower (though still positive) elasticity after 1989. A glance at single country level does not reveal evidence of EKC. Cross-country analysis is slightly more open to interpretation; in any case, however, it shows that the potential benefits of GDP growth on natural environment, if any, did not show up in the considered time span.

A consumption-based theory of the environmental Kuznets curve

Most theories about the inverted-U relationship between pollution and income, termed the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), are production-side theories emphasizing pollution and abatement technologies. Production-side theories are implicitly based on the assumption of low factor mobility, and the absence of pollution as a variable in the utility function. Both assumptions are called into question by the empirical evidence of EKCs for (i) pollutants that are long-lived and not easily shiftable and (ii) regional cross-sections with free labor mobility. Hazardous waste sites are a prime example. This paper develops a stylized model of the EKC based on perfect mobility of households and labor. It represents the first attempt at developing a consumption-side model of the EKC.