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Determinants of CO2 emissions in upper middle-income group countries: an empirical investigation

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Abstract

This study investigates the kinked exponential growth, degree of association, and causation between economic growth, energy consumption, population, trade openness, and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 25 upper middle-income group countries spanning data from 1985 to 2014. The study employed first-generation and second-generation unit root tests; prior to that, the cross-sectional dependence test is also applied and panel cointegration techniques, panel FMOLS and DOLS, and panel causality techniques are employed to test the degree of association and causation among the variables. The study reveals a long-run cointegration among the variables. Results of FMOLS declare that there are negative associations between economic growth and CO2 emissions, trade openness, and carbon dioxide emissions respectively, whereas it was found that there are positive relations between energy consumption and CO2 emissions, population, and CO2 emissions. While analyzing the association through DOLS, we find that all the selected determinants of carbon dioxide emissions are directly proportional to CO2 emissions in these countries. The panel Granger causality test indicates that there is bi-directional causality between population and economic growth and between trade openness and economic growth. Finally, the study ends with some policy suggestions and new avenues for future research.

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Notes

  1. International Energy Agency report 2011, entitled, “Deploying Renewables 2011: Best and Future Policy Practice.”

  2. Kuznets (1955) defined a reversed U-shaped relation between income inequality and economic growth. Grossman and Krueger (1991) later reestablished the Kuznets curve relationship with economic growth and environmental quality deprivation. Environmental Kuznets curve is an inverse U-shaped curve which shows the connection between environmental quality and economic growth.

  3. “Total population is based on the de facto definition of population, which counts all residents regardless of legal status or citizenship. The values shown are midyear estimates” (World Bank WDI, 2019).

  4. The literacy rate may be an appropriate proxy of environment awareness only and only if the environmental science is a compulsory discipline at all the levels of formal education in these countries.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the comments received from the conference participants and paper panellists in the 56th Annual Conference of the Indian Econometric Society (TIES), India, during 8-10 January 2020, held at School of Economics, Madurai Kamaraj University, India. The authors are thankful to Professor Kamaiah Bandi, Emeritus Professor, School of Economics, University of Hyderabad for his insightful and constructive comments on the earlier draft of this paper. We would also like to thank the editor and anonymous referees for their thoughtful and valuable comments. However, the usual disclaimer applies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra-182320, Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir, India

    Aqib Mujtaba & Pabitra Kumar Jena

  2. School of Business, Faculty of Management, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra-182320, Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir, 182320, India

    D. Mukhopadhyay

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  1. Aqib Mujtaba
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Correspondence to Pabitra Kumar Jena.

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Mujtaba, A., Jena, P.K. & Mukhopadhyay, D. Determinants of CO2 emissions in upper middle-income group countries: an empirical investigation. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 37745–37759 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-09803-z

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