Existence Of Environmental Kuznets Curve Research Articles

Effects of FDI, GDP and energy use on ecological footprint in Finland: an ARDL approach

Each economy faces the challenge of escalating carbon emissions, a factor which leads to environmental degradation. This study explores the impact of GDP per capita, FDI and energy use on ecological footprint in Finland during 1990-2021 using the ARDL model and checks the existence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve. Three hypotheses were proposed and empirically tested. The long-run ARDL dynamics show that: (i) GDP negatively influences ecological footprint; (ii) FDI negatively impacts ecological footprint; (iii) energy use positively influences ecological footprint. Another result of the paper is the existence of a U-shaped Environmental Kuznets Curve between GDP and ecological footprint. The findings are deliberated along with policy implications and proposed avenues for future research.

Reinvestigating the EKC hypothesis: Does renewable energy in power generation reduce carbon emissions and ecological footprint?

For a developing nation such as Malaysia with a significant reliance on fossil fuels for electricity, understanding the environmental consequences of this dependency is crucial. Thus, this study utilizes the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) method to explore the impact of electricity intensity (EINT), renewable energy in electricity generation (ERE), and gross domestic product (GDP) on Malaysia's environmental quality, from 1985 to 2020. By using carbon emissions (CO2 emissions) and ecological footprint (EF) as proxies, the study finds a significant long-run impact of these factors on environmental degradation. Notably, the study also observed an inverted U-shaped relationship between GDP and environmental degradation, validating the existence of Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. The findings also imply that while electricity intensity is associated with increased emissions, the use of renewable energy (RE) sources for electricity generation may contribute to emission reduction. But the results for both variables show reversal signs on EF. The study's adoption of the fully ordinary least square (FMOLS) method reinforces the same results, thus, justifying the cointegrating relationship between studied variables. Drawing from these outcomes, the study advocates for a comprehensive approach to renewable energy management, emphasizing both its utilization and waste in order to improve ecological footprint. Moreover, the pressing need to enact legislation on energy efficiency and conservation is crucial in ensuring decoupling and securing sustainable development in Malaysia.

Analysis of the Existence of Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) Hypothesis on CO2 Emission, Energy Consumption, and Economic Growth in Indonesia

This research explains environmental issues, in the context of Kuznets' theory that links economic growth, energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The focus of the research is to test the Kuznets Environment Curve (EKC) hypothesis in Indonesia in the period 1990-2019 using time series analysis Vector Error Correction Model (VECM). Research findings show that, both in the long and short term, CO2 emissions and energy consumption have a significant impact, while economic growth has no significant impact. These results indicate that the ECC hypothesis is not supported in Indonesia. Emerging policy implications include the transition to clean energy, sustainable farming and forestry management, waste and pollution control, and increased environmental awareness and education. Faced with the complexity of environmental challenges, the implementation of this policy has become crucial toining a balance between environmental sustainability and economic growth.

Corruption and Environmental Damage: Evidence from Panel Data in ASEAN-6

Environmental damage is a topic of great concern among researchers and receives special attention in global circles. One of the major contributors to environmental damage is the emission of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide. In this research, the influence of corruption on carbon emissions in six ASEAN countries is investigated, using indicators of economic growth, renewable energy, and urbanization. The Fixed Effect Model is used as the method of analysis, and the research data used is from 1996 to 2019, based on its availability. The research findings suggest that there is an existence of Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) in the form of an inverted U relationship. Renewable energy has a negative effect, while urbanization has a positive effect on carbon emissions. Additionally, control of corruption has been found to have a positive effect on carbon emissions. Based on these findings, it is essential to promote maximum economic growth, use renewable energy, limit urbanization, and increase control of corruption to help mitigate carbon emissions and environmental damage.

Pathways towards carbon neutrality in low carbon cities: The role of green patents, R&D and energy use for carbon emissions

China is adopting innovative strategies to mitigate the carbon emissions and to enhance environmental sustainability. China's pilot low-carbon city program is a comprehensive program to attain carbon neutrality and green transformation. The current research is an attempt to explore the dynamic relationship between green patents, energy use, research and development (R&D) expenditure, and carbon dioxide emissions of Chinese cities considered for the China Pilot Low Carbon City Program (CPLCCP). The prime objective of current research is to examine the validity of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) theory in the context of energy use, R&D and green patents. This objective is realized by employing CS-ARDL, Q-ARDL, and Granger's non-causality approach on panel data of 118 Chinese cities for the period of 2003 to 2020. The estimated result reveals that allocating resources towards R&D and green technological innovation can substantially increase environmental sustainability across various quantiles. Furthermore, the empirical findings validate the existence of Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) theory. The study suggests fruitful insights for policymakers and stakeholders committed apropos sustainable development and carbon neutrality of China.

Reducing agricultural nitrous oxide emissions in China: the role of food production, forest cover, income, trade openness, and rural population.

In the light of China's carbon-neutral goal, this study examines how food production, forest cover, trade openness, and rural population contribute to the quest of addressing China's agricultural nitrous oxide emissions. Time series data ranging from 1971 to 2018 was used for analysis in this study. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) technique was employed to evaluate potential cointegration as well as to ascertain the long and short-run effects of food production, forest cover, income, trade openness, and rural population on agricultural nitrous oxide emission. The Toda-Yamomoto causality analysis was also used to identify the causal relations between covariates (food production, forest cover, income, trade openness, and rural population) and the outcome variable (agricultural nitrous oxide emission). The long-run evidence is that rural population in itself tends to increase agricultural nitrous oxide emissions likewise food production. There is also validation of the existence of environmental Kuznets curve for agricultural nitrous oxide emissions. Moreover, income interacts with rural population to reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions in the long-run. Causality analysis indicated rural population affects the level of forest cover; forest cover is found to cause agricultural nitrous oxide emissions but the converse is not established, and income as well as the interaction between income and rural population determines agricultural nitrous oxide emissions. The short-run dynamics results establish an oscillatory equilibrium convergence for agricultural nitrous oxide emissions in event of structural disturbances. From the findings, the EKC hypothesis is relevant by offering avenue to reduce emission. Thus, income growth remains helpful in addressing nitrous oxide emission from the agricultural sector. However, research is needed to unravel why nitrous oxide tends to increase in many forest areas. Since food production cannot be halted, policy makers need to enhance the uptake of efficient food production technologies including developing and using more renewable energy for food production. It is important for authorities to attend to rural development in order to mitigate agricultural nitrous oxide emissions in China.

Spatial effects of the agricultural ecosystem services based on environmental kuznets curve in Mengyin county, China

Worldwide most agroecosystems effort to increase production and yields and leads to damages of a series of non-provisioning ecosystem services (ESs). To fill in the knowledge gaps pertaining to the understanding of complex relationship between agricultural harvests and other ESs, therefore this study aims to estimate the existence of Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) for agricultural ESs by incorporating the spatial factors. Based on the test of the spatial autocorrelation of agricultural ESs, the estimation results of spatial model are compared with general regression to explain the spatial effect of agricultural ESs. The results show that (1) contrary to expectation, the curve of the nonlinear relationship between agricultural ESs and annual household income is an inverted U-shape, and not an upright U-shape; (2) compared to non-spatial model, the turning point of the inverted U-shaped curve for agricultural ESs under the direct effect would happen earlier and happen later under the indirect effect; (3) years of formal education, vegetation coverage of field margin and cultivated land area have significantly impact on local agricultural ESs, and local perennial crops has significantly impact on agricultural ESs of neighboring villages. Results of this study have a promising application prospect to promote sustainable development of agriculture.

Evaluating industrial competitiveness strategy in achieving environmental sustainability

PurposeThis study has incorporated competitiveness by considering it a significant factor behind determining as well as moderating industrial value added in the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) framework. This study aims to explore the moderating role of competitiveness policy in EKC with an aim to promote business led sustainability at national level.Design/methodology/approachConsidering the environmental deterioration aspect of industrialization, this study tests the existence of EKC for SAARC countries using the data from 1996 to 2021 using second-generation static panel data model.FindingsEstimated results have validated that moderating effect is responsible for improving environmental sustainability in SAARC countries. Furthermore, population density is responsible for increasing while trade openness is responsible for decreasing carbon emissions.Originality/valueHigher industrial activities are a symbol of upward-moving economic growth. But its other impact is in the form of environmental deterioration. However, the relationship between industrialization and environmental quality can be identified through EKC.

Is export quality a viable option for sustainable development paths of Asian countries?

This paper investigates the role of export quality in climate action goal of the sustainable development goals in emerging Asian countries. For this purpose, the empirical model that observes the impact of real GDP, energy use and export quality index on carbon emissions is constructed and is analyzed by ARDL bounds testing approach for the period from 1970 to 2014. We also include the square of real GDP as independent variable to observe the existence of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis which implies the parabolic relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation. The findings show that increase in export quality leads to a fall in CO2 emissions for China and India. In contrast, the effect of increasing export quality increases CO2 emissions in Thailand and the Philippines. Lastly, our asymmetric causality results show that the positive shocks of export quality causes positive shocks of CO2 emissions in Thailand and Indonesia. Furthermore, we found that positive export quality shocks cause negative CO2 emissions shocks in India while negative export quality shocks cause positive CO2 emissions shocks in China. We also confirm the inverted U-shaped EKC hypothesis in China and Thailand.

Economic Growth, Energy Mix, and Tourism-Induced EKC Hypothesis: Evidence from Top Ten Tourist Destinations

The tourism sector makes a sizable contribution to a country’s gross domestic product, increasing employment opportunities, foreign currency earnings, and economic diversification strategies. This paper uses the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) model to analyze the effects of tourism on the environment in the world’s top 10 tourist countries from 1972 to 2021. Panel cointegration and second-generation unit root tests are suggested due to the presence of cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity. A cross-sectional-autoregressive-distributed lag (CS-ARDL) model is applied to evaluate the marginal influence of environmental variables other than tourism on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. These variables include fossil fuels, renewable energy, and nuclear energy. For the purpose of testing robustness, both the augmented mean group (AMG) and the common correlated effects mean group (CCEMG) estimators are employed. The CS-ARDL supports the EKC hypothesis in the short run and long run, but it is not significant in the short run. The existence of EKC demonstrates that rising income leads to fewer CO2 emissions. All forms of environmental degradation can be accelerated by using fossil fuels. The results of this study indicate that CO2 emissions can be reduced by using renewable energy and nuclear energy. A rise in tourism activity has a positive impact on environmental quality. The best-attended tourist spots around the globe are those that, in the long run, implement clean energy-related technology and promote ecotourism.

Economic complexity, ICT, biomass energy consumption, and environmental degradation: evidence from Iran.

Economic complexity, biomass energy consumption, and information communication technology (ICT) have diverse impacts on energy consumption and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Nevertheless, analysis of these variable effects is not addressed in the previous literature; the antiqueness of this article is stuffing this gap. This study assessed the relationship between gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, biomass consumption, economic complexity index (ECI), ICT, and CO2 emissions in Iran in 1994-2018. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model and the quantile regression (QR) econometric technique were used to investigate the factors affecting CO2 emissions in the tails of the conditional distribution. The share of each influential factor was predicted through the variance decomposition analysis (VD) for the next 10years. The empirical results showed a long-run relationship between the variables. So, the variables of biomass consumption, ECI, and ICT improve the quality of the environment in Iran by reducing CO2 emissions, and the per capita GDP variable increases CO2 emissions. Results suggest no evidence indicating the presence of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC); however, QR demonstrated the existence of EKCs in the lower quantiles of the conditional distribution. The ECI will have the most share to change the CO2 emissions in the future. The income threshold should be determined at the turning point of the EKC to increase economic development. Moreover, investing in increasing biomass consumption is vital. Policymakers also need to consider strict added value for the export of products.

Investigating the role of capital formation to achieve carbon neutrality in India.

India's sustainable development goals consist of higher economic growth through large investments on the one hand and ambitious carbon emission reduction plans through increased renewables on the other. It needs to be seen if the two policies related to capital formation and energy transitioning to renewables complement each other or if they have been divergent in the case of India. This paper studies the dynamic association between carbon dioxide emissions, economic growth, renewable energy (RE) consumption, and gross capital formation and tests for the existence of Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis for India over the time period 1970-2018. It also tries to see if there is any possible conflict between the economic and energy goals of the country by augmenting the interaction term between renewable energy consumption and gross capital formation in the EKC framework. The empirical results not only confirm long-run relationship among the underlying variables but also indicate an "N"-shaped EKC in the long run for India which is a departure from the traditional inverted U-shaped EKC hypothesis. Renewable energy consumption is found to reduce emissions, whereas gross capital formation and the interaction term between renewable energy consumption and gross capital formation are found to raise emissions in the long run. The study concludes that India needs to align its economic policy of "Make in India" with its energy policy so that investments under the former facilitate extensive penetration, adaptation, and usage of renewable energy. A policy dichotomy between the two goals may defeat India's Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) objective of drastic reduction in carbon dioxide emissions through increased renewables by 2030.

Complex network analysis of carbon emission transfers under global value chains.

Accompanied with the increasing complicated global value chain (GVC) networks is the carbon emission transfers among countries. Utilizing the complex network analysis alongside quadratic assignment procedure (QAP), this paper detects the community structure and influencing forces of the emission transfers under GVCs. The results imply that the bipolar structure of the network transformed gradually to tripolar owing largely to the surging of carbon emissions from China. Evidence on the existence of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) in the emission transfers from high-income countries to low-income countries, and a U-shape relationship transfers in the reverse direction, suggesting that growing carbon emissions from both low- and high-income countries transferred to other high-income countries gradually. Gaps in technology, especially in patent applications, between source and destination countries played an important role therein.

Reduction of CO2 emissions: The role of renewable energy, technological innovation and export quality

In the 22 well-developed countries of the world, the level of CO2 emissions has been reducing over the years despite positive economic growth. This study therefore attempts to explore the role of contributory factors for CO2 emissions reduction in these countries. Selecting the data period of 1990–2018, our chosen independent variables are gross domestic product (GDP), square of the gross domestic product (GDP2), renewable energy, technological innovation and export quality. Adopting a panel non-linear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) approach, a pooled mean group (PMG) estimation technique is used to explore the asymmetric linkages between CO2 emissions and these independent variables. The panel heterogeneous causality test is used to examine the direction of causality. The estimated results have confirmed the existence of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis; and renewable energy and export quality are found as contributory factors for the reduction of CO2 emissions. Positive stimuli of technological innovation measured by research and development expenditure and export quality index reduce, whereas the negative shocks or counter incentives of these variables increase CO2 emissions. In regards to causal relationship, bidirectional causality is found between renewable energy and CO2 emissions, technological innovation and CO2 emissions, GDP and renewable energy, and renewable energy and technological innovation. In addition, a unidirectional causality is also revealed from GDP to CO2 emissions, export quality and technological innovation, and from technological innovation to export quality. Policy recommendations are made following the findings.

Analysis of the Existence of Environmental Kuznets Curve: Evidence from India

The study aims to estimate the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) in the Indian context for the period of 1991-2018 by considering the role of economic growth, renewable energy, foreign direct investment, stock market size, energy intensity, and private investment in the energy sector with the help of autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) cointegration technique. The results confirm the existence of an inverted U-shaped EKC relationship between economic growth and CO2 emission level. However, the estimation of turnaround point shows that CO2 levels have kept increasing past the turnaround point, indicating that income disparity is a decisive factor in determining emissions and is a better indicator than national income. Furthermore, results confirm the negative impact of economic growth and stock market size on the environment. In contrast, renewable energy, foreign direct investment, and energy intensity positively impact the environment in the long run. However, the impact of private investment is insignificant. Though the Indian economy continued to grow during the last few decades, the minimal investment towards renewable energy may not help to reduce the environmental problems. Hence, the nation's income growth alone does not solve the ecological issues in the long run. In addition, it requires an increase in private investment towards the development of India's renewable energy sector.

Investigating the Dynamic Impact of FDI Inflows and Economic Growth on Environmental Degradation: Evidence From FMOLS and DOLS for Selected Asian Countries

The study examines the dynamic relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows, economic growth, and environmental degradation and investigates the long-run validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) and the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH) for selected Asian countries over the period 1990–2019. Additionally, this study aims to discover the longrun impact of energy consumption, globalization, and population density on environmental degradation by employing a panel cointegration approach, fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS), and dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS). The findings provide clear evidence of the existence of EKC and PHH in Asian countries for the period 1990–2019 in the long run. The findings reveal that economic growth has a highly significant and positive role in depleting environmental quality, but this effect gets reversed in the long run as, after a certain turning point, economic growth increases, and the quality of the environment gets better. Moreover, FDI inflows and energy consumption have a positive long-run impact on CO2 emissions, thus contributing to environmental degradation. The study recommends that governments and policymakers should strategically devise and implement CO2 reduction policies, such as carbon pricing, to encourage economic growth and to improve the quality of the environment, with the ultimate goal being to achieve sustainable development. Moreover, the use of cleaner energy should be promoted, and innovations and technological developments should be encouraged for hydropower, wind power, solar energy and other facilities around the world.

DOES FDI AND CORRUPTION AFFECT ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY IN TUNISIA?

This paper investigates the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) and corruption on the environmental pollution in Tunisia over the period 1984–2014 by applying an autoregressive distributed lag model. Our results revealed the existence of Environmental Kuznets Curve in Tunisian case. The pollution haven hypothesis postulates that polluting industrial activity in developed countries is shifting to developing countries with less stringent environmental regulations. This hypothesis has been proved. Hence, this study advises to make more aware to the negative effect of corruption. Overall, to improve environmental quality, the findings suggest that Tunisia should promote energy efficiency with sustainable growth. Therefore, results show that Tunisia should encourage more FDI inflows particularly in technology- intensive and environment-friendly industries.

Revisiting the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis in Pakistan

A number of studies have already determined the existence of inverted U-shaped environmental Kuznets curve in Pakistan however the role of structural breaks in determining the relationship is yet to be investigated. The objective of this study was to determine if the presence of possible structural breaks explain the existence of environmental Kuznets curve type relationship in Pakistan for the period 1980-2016 by using data of total energy consumption, Real GDP per capita, foreign direct investment and trade openness. For the analysis the study first used the conventional time series econometric methods to determine the order of integration and Cointegration in the model. Second; as it is evident from the literature that presence of structural break in the model can have a significant impact, so the study used the Zivot and Andrews unit root test with one structural break to determine the order of integration in the model and Gregory-Hansen -Cointegration method to determine the presence of structural break within Cointegration framework. The results of the study not only confirm the existence of environmental Kuznets curve in the model, it also confirms the presence of structural break in the model.

The heterogeneous effects of different technological innovations on eco-efficiency: Evidence from 30 China’s provinces

Eco-efficiency (EE) is an important indicator to reflect the level of sustainable economic growth. This article places contribution to the existing literature by examining the relationship between innovation and eco-efficiency by incorporating three different innovation indicators: invention patent, utility patent and design patent. The dataset covers a balanced panel of 30 China’s provinces over the period of 2003–2017. Super efficiency slack-based model (SSBM) and super efficiency epsilon-based model (SEBM) under meta-frontier is used to measure the eco-efficiency. While, Bootstrap Truncation Regression is employed to analyze the different impacts of innovations on eco-efficiency. Regarding efficiency, the results indicate that eco-efficiency in China is at a decreasing trend overall, and there exists a certain heterogeneity among different regions. The results of Bootstrap Truncation Regression show that the invention patent and design patent exert positive effects on China’s eco-efficiency while utility patent inhibits the improvement of efficiency score during the sample period. Moreover, the estimation validates the existence of EKC (Environmental Kuznets curve) theory for China based on the extended STIRPAT model. Inward foreign direct investment (IFDI) has both pollution halo effect and pollution haven effect in China, while the effect of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) on eco-efficiency is different across different regions. A U-shaped relationship is found between environmental regulation and eco-efficiency. On the basis of results, government should formulate strict environmental regulation and impose targeted subsidies on green technological innovation to promote green economic growth.

The impasse of energy consumption coupling with pollution haven hypothesis and environmental Kuznets curve: a case study of South Asian economies.

This study investigates the role of energy consumption in environmental degradation and checks the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) and pollution haven hypothesis (PHH) for the South Asian economies. The model is also controlled for population growth. The dynamic panel data model is estimated through Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS) rigorously. The results reject the possibility of the existence of EKC but ensure the prevalence of PHH. The study suggests that the South Asian countries should focus on attracting clean foreign investment, whereas the renewable energy production is critical for climate change mitigation. The study also stresses the financial institutions' active role in providing easy loans for promoting research and development in environmentally friendly production practices.