Kuznets Curve For CO2 Emissions Research Articles

Is There a Kuznets Curve for CO2-Emissions?

The history of the environmental Kuznets curve is traced. We estimate how the CO2-intensity of economies is related to GDP per capita and examine the implications for the Kuznets curve. We find mixed evidence for the existence of this curve. In many poor and medium rich countries the CO2-intensity has increased since 1990, while in rich countries it has fallen. In some of those it has fallen at an increasing rate, but in others at a declining rate. If the CO2-intensity converges to a lower limit as countries grow richer the Kuznets curve would not exist.

Environmental Kuznets curve for CO2 emissions in Baltic countries: an empirical investigation

Recognizing the factors responsible for the gradual increase in greenhouse gas [e.g. carbon dioxide (CO2)] emissions is crucial to reduce the detrimental consequences on environmental sustainability and human life. Accordingly, spotting the sectors which contribute the most to CO2 emissions and dampen economic growth have become one of the major concerns for policymakers around the globe. Against this background, this paper examines the nexus between economic growth and CO2 emissions in three Baltic countries namely Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Thus, the study basically checks the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis by taking into account the role of energy consumption and financial development over the period of 1990–2018. This type of study is highly important for the region in order to comply with the commitments of the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. The study first employs appropriate testing procedures and second-generation panel data methods to account for cross-sectional dependency and slope heterogeneity among countries. Applying unit roots and cointegration tests, the study then employed different mean group estimation models and heterogeneous panel causality methods suitable for cross-sectionally dependent and heterogeneous panels. The results of the econometric analyses reveal that the inverted U-shaped EKC hypothesis does not hold in the Baltic countries. But the pollution haven hypothesis is evidenced to hold for these nations. By boosting the CO2 emissions figures, again, the study also revealed that higher levels of energy consumption exhibit adverse environmental consequences. Financial development is found to be effective in explaining the variations in the CO2 emission figures of the selected countries as well. Causality test results confirm bi-directional causality between economic growth and CO2 emissions, energy use and CO2 emissions, CO2 emissions and financial development, energy use and economic growth as well as between energy use and financial development. Furthermore, country-specific impacts are found to be similar to the corresponding panel estimates. Consistent with the findings, the study finally puts forward some policy-level suggestions. Accordingly, it is recommended that the Baltic countries need to move away from fossil-fuel dependent energy consumption growth policies to mitigate environmental degradation.

Environmental Kuznets curve for CO2 emissions

Environmental Kuznets curve for CO2 emissions

Empirical Analysis of the Environmental Kuznets Curve for Co2 Emissions in Nigeria: The Role of Industrialization and Urbanization

The proposed inverted U-type relationship between environmental degradation and per capita income under EKC hypothesis has been examined in this paper for Nigeria over the period 1970-2019. Using the ARDL bounds testing approach to cointegration and ECM (OLS Approach), the EKC hypothesis does not seem to hold both in short-run and long-run. The estimated coefficients of the long-run relationship shows that LOGCO2(-1) is the only statistically significant variable explaining environmental degradation while the short run results indicate that D(LOGCO2(-1)) is the most significant variable in explaining environmental degradation in Nigeria followed by D(LOGIND(-1)).

Does the Environmental Kuznets Curve for CO2 Emissions Exist for Rwanda? Evidence from Bootstrapped Rolling-Window Granger Causality Test

This paper examined the causal relationship between economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) in Rwanda using annual data from 1960–2014. The study was conducted within the framework of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis using the rolling-window bootstrap Granger causality test approach with a rolling-window size of 15 years. The methodology allows for non-constancy in the parameters of the vector autoregression (VAR) model in the short run as well as in the long run. The study found bi-direction causality between the real gross domestic product (GDP) and CO2 emissions in metric tons per capita. The results from the rolling-window bootstrap Granger causality test show that GDP negatively influenced CO2 emissions in the 1976–1977, 1990–1993, 2005–2006, and 2007–2013 sub-sample periods. This result depicts a monotonically decreasing EKC, contrary to the standard EKC relationship. The downward-sloping EKC was explained by the transition of the Rwandan economy from an industrial-based economy to a service-based economy. Further, a feedback effect from CO2 emissions to the economy was established.

Shining a new light on the environmental Kuznets curve for CO2 emissions

Abstract This paper examines the existence of an inverted U-shaped relationship between income and CO2 emissions from fossil fuels for a panel of 161 countries over the period 1992–2012. Our contribution, empirical in nature, is threefold. (i) We estimate the Environmental Kuznets Curve for CO2 emissions using three conventional measures of GDP taken from the PWT and the WDI and show that the results of the estimates are unstable and that the turning points are dependent on the measure of GDP. (ii) We use a new dataset of GDP based on the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program's Operational Linescan System (DMSP-OLS) nighttime light imagery as a proxy for the development level, and using these data, which are less prone to the measurement errors in the System of National Accounts statistics, we find evidence for the existence of an Environmental Kuznets Curve for CO2 emissions. (iii) We apply a U test that confirms that the estimated extreme point is within our data range. The evaluated turning point, beyond which CO2 emissions start to fall as income rises, is considerably lower than earlier studies show, and thus, our results provide more optimistic prospects of the possible environmental benefits of economic growth.

Fully modified OLS estimation and inference for seemingly unrelated cointegrating polynomial regressions and the environmental Kuznets curve for carbon dioxide emissions

This paper develops two fully modified OLS (FM-OLS) estimators for systems of seemingly unrelated cointegrating polynomial regressions, i.e., systems of regressions that include deterministic variables, integrated processes, and integer powers of integrated processes as explanatory variables. The stationary errors are allowed to be serially correlated and the regressors to be endogenous. Furthermore, the errors and regressors are allowed to be dynamically cross-sectionally correlated. The developed estimators have zero mean Gaussian mixture limiting distributions that allow for asymptotic chi-squared inference. The Wald-type hypothesis test results are the basis for considering detailed tests for general forms of group-wise poolability. We provide the corresponding group-wise pooled variants of our estimators, in case the poolability restrictions are not rejected. Our simulations indicate that appropriate pooling leads, as expected, to improved performance of the estimators and tests. Data-driven group-wise pooling turns out to be crucial in our illustrative application that analyzes the environmental Kuznets curve for CO2 emissions for six early industrialized countries.

Environmental Kuznets curve for CO2 emissions: a literature survey

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide a survey of the empirical literature on environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) estimation of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions over the period of 1991–2017.Design/methodology/approachThis survey categorizes the studies on the basis of power of income in empirical models of EKC. It has been hypothesized that the EKC shows an inverted U-shaped association between economic growth and CO2 emissions.FindingsFor all the contexts, the results of EKC estimation for CO2 emissions are inconclusive in nature. The reasons behind this discrepancy can be attributed to the choice of contexts, time period, explanatory variables, and methodological adaptation.Research limitations/implicationsThe future studies in this context should not only consider new set of variables (e.g. corruption index, social indicators, political scenario, energy research and development expenditures, foreign capital inflows, happiness, population education structure, public investment toward alternate energy exploration, etc.), but also the data set should be refined, so that the EKC estimation issues raised by Stern (2004) can be addressed.Originality/valueBy far, no study in the literature of ecological economics has focused on the empirical estimation of EKC for CO2 emissions. This particular context has been used for this study, as CO2 is one of the highest studied pollutants in the ecological economics, and especially within the EKC hypothesis framework.

Investigating the non-linearity between national income and environmental pollution: international evidence of Kuznets curve

This paper analyzes how national income (per capita real GDP) influences the environmental pollution (per capita CO2 emissions) using a very heterogenous sample composed by 120 countries during the 2000–2009 period. We first apply a panel unit root test suggested by Im et al. (J Econometr 115(1):53–74, 2003) to examine the stationarity properties of CO2 emissions and GDP and then a two-step generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator, paying particular attention to the non-linearity of the national income–environmental pollution relationship, to investigate the existence of a Kuznets curve for CO2 emissions. Preliminary evidence showing the existence of an inverted U-shaped relationship between national income and environmental pollution, validating the Kuznets’s hypothesis, turned out to be measleading once the issue of (non) stationarity has been taken into account. Results also show that as population and industrial output expand, more pressure will be put forth the environment, leading to more emissions, calling for more strict environmental and energy conservation policies.

A reexamination of the existence of environmental Kuznets curve for CO2 emissions: evidence from G20 countries

As the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide (CO2) has been under intensive studied in the last two decades. This paper addresses the research that whether the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) for CO2 emissions exists in G20 group—an international forum for governments and central banks from 19 countries and European Union. To analyze the studied relationship thoroughly, other four explanatory variables—two trade openness terms, the ratio of secondary industry value-added to GDP and population density—are employed to investigate whether they have any influences on the existence and shapes of EKC. In the empirical study, two multinational panel data sets covering the periods between 1960 and 2010 (50 years) and between 1990 and 2010 (20 years) are utilized, and the panel data fixed effects and generalized method of moments estimators are employed. The estimation results indicate that the EKC indeed exists in the G20 members as a whole. To investigate whether the existence of EKC depends on the level of economic growth, the G20 countries are further divided into two subgroups: developed and developing countries. Although the estimation results suggest that there exists EKC in developing countries during both 20- and 50-year period, there is no persuasive evidence to prove the existence of EKC in developed countries during the 20-year period. For the time periods we studied, most developed countries have seen relatively stable or even decreasing CO2 emissions, while for the majority of the developing countries, the peak of CO2 emissions could not be reached in the near future.

Environmental Kuznets curve for CO2 emissions in China: A spatial panel data approach

Different from previous studies which mainly focused on conventional estimation techniques, this paper examines the CO2 EKC hypothesis of China using a spatial panel data model to avoid the coefficient estimation error covering the period of 1997–2012. Furthermore, a comparative analysis of the turning points between the non-spatial panel model and spatial panel model is conducted. The results show that the relationship between economic growth and CO2 emissions shapes as an inverted-N trajectory. Spatial spillovers effects are confirmed to affect the shape of the CO2 environmental Kuznets curve. There exists an apparent block distribution in spatial structure of China's provincial CO2 emissions. Specifically, CO2 emissions have a relatively sharp increase from the eastern regions to the central and the western regions of China. It has also been found that urbanization and coal combustion are main factors on increasing CO2 emissions. While the trade openness contributes to slight decrease in CO2 emissions. The government should make targeted carbon-reduction policies for CO2 emission reduction.

Environmental Kuznets curve for CO2 emissions: The case of Arctic countries

The main new contribution of this paper is to examine the Environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis using time series data at individual country levels. Empirical focus is on the assessment of income per capita on CO2 emissions in the Arctic countries by taking into account the role of energy consumption. An autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) modeling approach to cointegration is applied to annual data for the period 1960–2010. The results provide little evidence of the existence of the EKC hypothesis for the Arctic countries. We also find that economic growth has a beneficial effect on the environment only in some Arctic countries. Finally, energy consumption is found to have a detrimental effect on the environment in most countries.

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.