The existing literature on environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) is mainly focused on finding out the optimal sustainable path for any economy. Looking at the present renewable energy generation scenario ...in India, this study has made an attempt to estimate the EKC for CO2 emission in India for the period of 1971–2015. Using unit root test with multiple structural breaks and autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach to cointegration, this study has found the evidence of inverted U-shaped EKC for India, with the turnaround point at USD 2937.77. The renewable energy has found to have significant negative impact on CO2 emissions, whereas for overall energy consumption, the long run elasticity is found to be higher than short run elasticity. Moreover, trade is negatively linked with carbon emissions. Based on the results, this study concludes with suitable policy prescriptions.
•We have estimated EKC for CO2 emissions in India for 1971–2015.•Renewable energy is included in the linear and quadratic EKC framework.•Unit root test with multiple structural breaks and ARDL bounds test have been used.•Non-rejection of EKC hypothesis emphasized the impact of renewable energy.
Purpose
The 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/approach
This 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.
Findings
For 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/implications
The 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/value
By 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.
This study examines the association between foreign direct investment (FDI) and carbon emissions for the Middle East and North African (MENA) region in 1990–2015, including biomass energy consumption ...as an additional determinant of carbon emissions. We apply the generalized method of moments (GMM) to validate the existence of the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH). The N-shaped association is also validated between FDI and carbon emissions. The link between economic growth and carbon emissions is inverted-U and N-shaped; that is, it satisfies the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypotheses. Biomass energy use lowers carbon emissions, and the causality analysis reveals that FDI causes CO2 emissions. Clearly, the results confirm the existence of a feedback effect between economic growth and carbon emissions. The connection between biomass energy use and CO2 emissions is also bidirectional. The empirical findings suggest policy makers to design comprehensive trade and energy policies by targeting the cleaner production practices, for not only to ensure environmental sustainability, but also to fulfil the objectives of sustainable development goals.
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•We examine the association between FDI and carbon emissions.•Study has been done for the Middle East and North African countries in 1990–2015.•Biomass energy consumption is considered as a determinant of carbon emissions.•We validate the existence of the Pollution Haven Hypothesis.•N-shaped association is validated between FDI and carbon emissions.
Numerous studies regarding the economic growth-environmental pollution link have struggled to determine the effects of various forms of energy consumption on environmental degradation, particularly ...in the context of emerging economies. This study examines the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) for CO2 emissions in N-11 countries during 1990-2014 by segregating three forms of energy consumption (renewable, biomass and non-renewable). Urbanization and trade openness are additional explanatory variables that are used in the empirical framework. Using the Generalized Moments Method (GMM), the empirical evidence confirms the presence of an N-shaped relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation for N-11 countries. This study analyzed the interaction effects among trade openness, biomass consumption and economic growth; these interactions had a negative impact on CO2 emissions levels of N-11 countries. Suitable policy recommendations have been provided based on the detailed results.
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•We examine the EKC for CO2 emissions in N-11 countries during 1990–2014.•We segregate three forms of energy consumption (renewable, biomass and non-renewable).•Urbanization and trade openness are additional explanatory variables.•The empirical evidence confirms the presence of an N-shaped EKC.
The re-examination of the existing economic and environmental policies in the South and Southeast Asian countries seems to be necessary, as these countries are struggling to achieve the goals of ...sustainable development. For designing a long-term environmental policy, we intended to examine whether the selected economic and demographic indicators have influenced the ecological footprint in the eight developing countries of Asia from 1990 to 2015. The use of pooled mean group (PMG) approach allowed driving the long-run common coefficients, which may facilitate us to develop a common policy framework for fortifying the environmental quality. The computed results confirmed that the selected variables are cointegrated in the long run, and the variables, i.e., per capita income, nonrenewable energy usage, urbanization, fertility rate, and population density are observed as the significant drivers of the environmental pollution. Moreover, the consumption of renewable energy restored the environmental quality in these countries. Based on the results, we recommended the need for the diversification of the energy-basket for enhancement of the use of renewable energy resources. Further, through sensitization of the necessity of environmental conservation, the governments should promote less carbon-intense economic and demographic practices across the industries and sectors.
In recent years, industrial growth has enabled the BRICS nations to increase their export earnings from both traditional and new products. However, in terms of modernization of industries, these ...nations can be considered as laggards, because the present production processes appear to be carbon-intensive and energy-inefficient. In this backdrop, the present study, by using the second-generation econometric procedures, is intended to examine the impact of industrialization, export diversification, technological innovation, income inequality, and resource rents on the carbon dioxide emissions in the BRICS nations from 1990 to 2018. The long-run coefficients revealed that the industrial expansion, reduction in export diversification, low concentration on traditional exports, and high concentration on new exports exacerbated the air quality in the BRICS nations. On the other hand, technological advancement contributed to restoring environmental quality during the study period. Furthermore, it is observed that the present research endeavors in the BRICS nations are insufficient in circumventing industrial pollution, as the value of the joint coefficient of technological advancement and industrialization is found insignificant but negative. Hence, based on the computed results, a multipronged policy framework is proposed, so that these nations can achieve the targeted sustainable development goals (SDGs) in the coming years.
Designing a comprehensive policy framework for ascertaining sustainable development is a problem faced by most of the countries around the globe, and the developed nations are no exception to that. ...Environmental awareness-oriented policy design for achieving sustainable development goals is a challenge for the developed nations, and there lies the contribution of this study. This study analyzes the impact of renewable energy on carbon emissions, in presence of education, natural resource abundance, foreign direct investment, and economic growth for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries over the period of 1990–2015. Second generation methodologies are adapted for the empirical estimation. The results show the stimulating role of renewable energy consumption in shaping environmental quality. Education declines carbon emissions. Natural resource abundance and foreign direct investment deteriorate environmental quality. Moreover, the time series individual country analysis also confirms that renewable energy has a positive impact on economic growth. The heterogeneous causality analysis reveals the feedback effect, i.e., bidirectional causal associations among carbon emissions, education, and renewable energy consumption. This empirical evidence suggests that countries should increase investment in education and renewable energy sectors and plan for research and development in renewable energy for ensuring environmental sustainability.
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•This study analyzes the impact of educational attainment on carbon emissions.•Study has been done for 27 OECD countries over the period of 1990–2015.•Results show stimulating role of educational attainment in shaping environmental quality.•Natural resource abundance and FDI deteriorates environmental quality.
•We re-investigate the impact of renewable and non-renewable energy consumption on Turkey’s ecological footprint.•This study applies Quantile Autoregressive Lagged approach for the period of ...1965Q1-2017Q4.•Renewable energy decrease ecological footprint in long-run on each quantile.•The results of QARDL confirmed the EKC in Turkey.•There is a bi-directional causal relationship between renewable energy consumption, energy consumption and economic growth with ecological footprint.
The current study re-investigates the impact of renewable and non-renewable energy consumption on Turkey’s ecological footprint. This study applies Quantile Autoregressive Lagged (QARDL) approach for the period of 1965Q1-2017Q4. We further apply Granger-causality in Quantiles to check the causal relationship among the variables. The results of QARDL show that error correction parameter is statistically significant with the expected negative sign for all quantiles which confirm an existence of significant reversion to the long-term equilibrium connection between the related variables and ecological footprint in Turkey. In particular, the outcomes suggested that renewable energy decrease ecological footprint in long-run on each quantile. However, the results of economic growth and non-renewable energy impact positively to ecological footprint in long-short run period at all quantiles. Finally, we tested the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis and the results of QARDL confirmed the EKC in Turkey. Furthermore, the findings of causal investigation from Granger-causality in quantiles evident the presence of a bi-directional causal relationship between renewable energy consumption, energy consumption and economic growth with ecological footprint in the Turkish economy.
In terms of attaining the objectives of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Asian economies are considered as laggards, and one of the major problems faced by these economies is the issue of ...environmental degradation. For addressing this pertaining issue, a policy-level reorientation might be necessary. In this view, this study aims to explore the impact of urbanization, renewable energy consumption, financial development, agriculture, and economic growth on CO
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emissions in 15 Asian economies over 1990–2014. The empirical evidence demonstrates that urbanization, financial development, and economic growth increase CO
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emissions, renewable energy consumption reduces CO
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emissions, and the impact of agriculture is insignificant. Impulse response function and variance decomposition techniques are used to test the causality among the variables. Based on the study outcomes, a comprehensive SDG-oriented policy framework has been recommended, so that these economies can make progression toward attaining the objectives of SDG 13 and SDG 7. This study contributed to the literature by recommending this SDG-oriented policy framework, which encapsulates economic growth and its drivers.
In the preceding two decades, the expansion of financial services has played a vital role in pursuing economic growth agendas in the developing Asian nations. However, its harmful effect on ...environmental quality cannot be denied. In this backdrop, in the present study, we investigated whether the financial sector development moderated the ecological footprint, carbon footprint, and land footprint in the eight developing nations of South and Southeast Asia from 1990 to 2015. In doing so, we included the per capita income, energy solutions, and trade expansions as determinants of the ecological indicators. The results of the second-generation unit root tests and Westerlund’s cointegration test reported the long-run stability and cointegration, respectively. To navigate the possible cross-country dependency, we employed the cross-sectional augmented autoregressive distributed lag approach (CS-ARDL). The results confirmed that per capita income, energy solutions, trade expansion, and financial sector development invigorated the ecological footprint, carbon footprint, and land footprint in the long run. Further, it is reported that the development in the financial sector has a significant moderating impact on the nexus between energy and environmental footprints. In other words, the financial sector development drove the association between the overall environmental quality and energy solutions in the long run. Similarly, we observed that the financial sector development worked as a significant mediator between environmental proxies and trade expansion. By including the ecological footprint, carbon footprint, and land footprint as environmental proxies, the study provides the wider environmental spectrum. Based on the outcomes of the study, we proposed a novel scheme, which may help to address the harmful environmental impacts of the financial sector development in the selected developing nations.
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