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This study investigates the cointegration and causality among environmental quality (CO2 emissions), international trade, economic growth, and tourism of five Central Asian Republic States (CARS-5), namely Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Uzbekistan, for 1992–2018. To this end, we employed the Johansen cointegration approach, modified Wald tests, and the Toda & Yamamoto (1995) approach. The empirical results showed that the variables were cointegrated in the long run, and the Granger causality test results revealed the existence of causality in the series. Furthermore, the empirical results validated both the export-led and the tourism-led growth hypotheses for Tajikistan and Kazakhstan. These findings suggest that the CARS-5 should develop appropriate and prudent public policies to stimulate sustainable economic development.

This work analyzed the long-run (LR) and short-run (SR) effects of renewable and non-renewable energy (RE and NRE) usage, economic development (ED), agricultural value-added (AVA), and forestry area (FA) on the environmental quality (EQ) in China spanning from 1990 to 2015. The autoregressive distributed lags (ARDL) bounds testing method and the Johansen cointegration approach are applied to produce empirical estimates. The empirical results of the ARDL and the fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) estimators established that renewable energy usage and forest area reduce CO2 emissions and improve the environmental quality, while non-renewable energy consumption, economic development, and agricultural output increase the level of CO2 emissions in China. The robustness of outcomes is checked through the Granger causality test, impulse response function (IRF), and variance decomposition method (VDM) suggesting that fossil fuel usage in the agriculture production process is mainly accountable for China’s CO2 emissions. These findings have inherent policy implications for the central and local Chinese government, which are exhibited in the “Conclusions” section.

This article revisits the nexus between financial development and environmental degradation by incorporating economic growth, electricity consumption and economic globalization in the CO2 emissions function for the period 1975QI–2014QIV in the United Arab Emirates. We apply structural break and cointegration tests to examine unit root and cointegration between the variables. Further, the article also uses the Toda-Yamamoto causality test to investigate the causal relationship between the variables and tests the linkages of the robustness of causality by following the innovative accounting approach. Our empirical analysis shows cointegration between the series. Financial development increases CO2 emissions. Economic growth is positively linked with environmental degradation. Electricity consumption improves environmental quality. Economic globalization affects CO2 emissions negatively. The relationship between financial development and CO2 emissions is U-shaped and inverted N-shaped. Further, financial development leads to environmental degradation, and environmental degradation in turn leads to financial development in the Granger sense. © 2020, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

Sustainable development inculcates the process of preserving the environment for future generations while maintaining existing human needs. This study attempts to empirically investigate the relationship between CO2 emissions, GDP, energy consumption, and imports and exports using yearly data between 1980 and 2014 for the panel of eight developing countries (i.e., Bangladesh, Egypt, Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Turkey). All the tests for cointegration establish the long-run association among the variables and confirm the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis for the panel of eight countries. GDP and energy consumption remained significant factors for emission intensity both in the long and short run. However, exports found to be positive factor for emissions in the long run only and imports spur emissions in the short run. The country-specific results validate EKC hypothesis for Bangladesh, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Turkey. The findings are policy oriented and suggest that the countries’ economic growth along with energy consumption and exports are highly emission intensive which require necessary adjustments at sustainable development policy front.

WOS: 000456761300061, This present study explores the relationship of renewable and non-renewable energy consumption with carbon emission by using panel data of 74 nations from 1990 to 2015. In doing as so, we apply the second-generation econometrics of panel data to examines the cross-section independence and control the heterogeneity between cross-sections. The CIPS unit root test, Westerlund (2007) bootstrap cointegration, Pedroni co-integration, FMOLS and heterogeneous panel causality techniques have been applied. The outcomes affirm that all variables are integrated over the long-run. The results also show that the nonrenewable energy consumption has a positive effect on environmental degradation whereas; renewable energy has a negative impact on environmental degradation and help to reduce environmental hazards. Similarly, financial development also has a negative and significant impact on environmental degradation. Furthermore, the Kuznets hypothesis are also tested and found its existence. This study provides valuable policy implications for the government and the policy makers.

In reality, economic expansion cannot be paced-up enough. This account for a potential trade-off between income and environmental degradation that is expectedly feasible at a maximum level of income. On this note, the current study looked at the validity of income-environmental degradation (Environmental Kuznets Curve, EKC) hypothesis especially amidst risk to investment in the United States over the period 1984–2017. Considering that the burning of fossil fuels constitutes the largest source of Greenhouse gas (GHG) in the United States, this study employed energy carbon emissions as a proxy for environmental quality and as a dependent variable. While the study employed renewable energy production as additional explanatory variable, it implemented the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) technique in addition to a set of cointegration techniques. Importantly, the study found that the EKC hypothesis is valid for the case of the United States but not without a non-significant trade-off of risk to investment. Additionally, renewable energy production exhibits a statistically significant and desirable impact on environmental quality in both the short and long-run. In general, the study posited that while environmental sustainability is achievable at maximum level of income, it is likely attainable at the detriment of risk to investment. Hence, this observation should trigger a potential policy mechanism that minimizes risk to investment in light of the attainment of the country's sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Anthropogenic activities have resulted in environmental concerns due to the global consciousness for mitigating climate change issues. This awareness is emphasized in the sustainable development goals contained in the seventh and 13th targets. The study investigates the nexus between energy and growth while considering the moderating role of employment and its interaction with energy consumption in G7 countries for the period of 1980–2018. To achieve this objective, a carbon-income function is fitted to ameliorate the problems related to omitted variable bias. Empirical results indicate that all outlined variables are cointegrated over the investigated period, as reported by the Kao cointegration test. The study further validates the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis in the short-run. With emphasis on economic growth relative to environmental quality while in the long run, there is no statistical evidence in support of the EKC phenomenon. Furthermore, a 1% increase in energy consumption increases pollutant emission in the long run by 3.80%. Similarly, a positive elastic relationship is observed between trade and environmental degradation. This outcome is demonstrated in the causality results, which reveal a one-way causality running from trade to pollutant emission. These findings provide insights that can help policy formulations, including decoupling economic growth from pollutant emission and the need to adopt cleaner and eco-friendly technologies.

Environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) is a statistical tool to examine the cointegration and causality nexus between economic growth and carbon emissions. The EKC is widely used in energy and environmental economics studies. Although a large number of researchers have analyzed the EKC by applying different statistical models, some review work has been summarized to draw a pictorial view of extending studies in this research field. However, still, the macroscopic overview needs to be considered. Therefore, this study aims to contribute to the literature for finding a new pathway for further research employing, and to facilitate this research, scientometric analysis is carried out by feature in CiteSpace. The dataset was screened and found 2384 records out of 59,225 Web of Science (WoS) references, and the records for the timespan 1999–2019 was used to visualize the knowledge map and outcome of the scientific enterprise. The visualization results reveal the most influencing studies, institutions, authors, countries, keywords, and category cloud, in the research field of EKC. This article reveals that the research on EKC in alignment with green and sustainable technology science requires more attention. Further, this article would help authors and publishers make their decisions for the research of EKC and planning for future perspectives to contribute to academic development and applied methodology.

The main objective of this study is to examine the impacts of globalization, financial development, government expenditures, and institutional quality on CO2 emissions, incorporating energy consumption, and GDP per capita in the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) model for 47 Emerging Market and Developing Economies (EMDEs) between 1990 and 2014. Owing to the presence of cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity in the panel data, CADF and CIPS unit root tests are employed to validate the stationarity of the variables. Westerlund (Oxf Bull Econ Stat 69:709–748, 2007) and Banerjee and Carrion-i-Silvestre (J Time Ser Anal 38:610–636, 2017) cointegration tests denote the occurrence of cointegration among the variables. We employed CCEMG, AMG, and DCCE estimators to estimate heterogeneous parameters. The findings demonstrate that globalization, financial development, and energy consumption increase CO2 emissions. Besides, the EKC hypothesis is affirmed in EMDEs. The accrual of governments’ financial and governance activities also boosts carbon dioxide emissions. Moreover, the analysis of Dumitrescu and Hurlin causality provides evidences for the feedbacks among the variables and CO2 emissions. From the aforementioned results, there exists the trade-off effect between economic growth and environmental quality in EMDE countries. Finally, the empirical findings of this study indicate profound implications for policy makers, which recommend governments to consider the role of finance and governance in order to ensure that energy consumption, financial development, and sustainable economic growth are in harmony with the environment in the globalization era.

This study investigated the causal linkage between environmental pollution by carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and net foreign direct investment (FDI), along with some other variables, namely economic growth by real per capita income and trade openness, using balanced annual data of 17 countries from Asia for the period from 1980 to 2014. Panel cointegration tests confirm the long-run association among the variables. After checking the panel data for stationarity properties, the method panel fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) is implemented. The FMOLS estimates on CO2 emission model reveal that inward FDI has a significantly positive impact on environmental pollution, supporting the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH). Likewise, FDI model results imply that CO2 emissions represent environmental pollution; economic growth and trade openness are the pivotal determinants of FDI. Panel causality results suggest bidirectional linkages between CO2 emissions and inward FDI. Empirical findings suggest that economic policy reforms are required to channelise foreign capital inflows to a more environmentally healthy direction. The governments of Asian countries should chalk out policies on FDI inflows and the environment in order to achieve sustainable economic growth and development.

WOS: 000445273500091, PubMed: 30141168, This paper explores the direct impact of new technology on the energy intensity in China. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds test approach to cointegration is utilised over the extended period of 1985-2013. The variables found cointegrated and confirm the long-run association among all the underlying vectors. Furthermore, the results of long- and short-run analysis reveal that new technology spurs energy intensity in China. A 1% increase in technological innovation boosts energy intensity by 0.4% and 0.03% in the long and short run, respectively. The findings suggest that the establishment of smart grids and solar energy parks followed by the reforms in energy sector is yet to achieve plausible efficiency in China. The existing investment and innovation policy reforms are insufficient to assist the energy sector to cope up with the country's exceptional economic growth trend. Unlike other studies, this paper accommodates structural break in the series. During sensitivity analysis, the model is found stable. Hence, the findings possess important policy implications for China and open up new discussion in the field.

This study examined the empirical effects of economic growth, electricity consumption, foreign direct investment (FDI), and financial development on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in Kuwait using time series data for the period 1980–2013. To achieve this goal, we applied the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach and found that cointegration exists among the series. Findings indicate that economic growth, electricity consumption, and FDI stimulate CO2 emissions in both the short and long run. The VECM Granger causality analysis revealed that FDI, economic growth, and electricity consumption strongly Granger-cause CO2 emissions. Based on these findings, the study recommends that Kuwait reduce emissions by expanding its existing Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage plants; capitalizing on its vast solar and wind energy; reducing high subsidies of the residential electricity scheme; and aggressively investing in energy research to build expertise for achieving electricity generation efficiency.

The aim of this research is to examine the link between CO 2 emissions, hydroelectricity consumption, urbanisation and real GDP in China and India during the period of 1965–2013. The long-run cointegration is investigated by the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach, which is augmented with structural breaks. We employ the ARDL cointegration test to establish long run relationship in the variables. Furthermore, we use the ARDL to show that real GDP and urbanisation have long-run positive impact on emission, while hydroelectricity consumption exerts long-run negative impact on emission in both countries. The results support the existence of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis in China and India. Besides, the paper assesses the causal link between the variables by using Granger causality procedures and the results show that there is long-run bidirectional relationship between the variables in both countries.

Germany is the largest economy in Europe and the leading renewable energy user comparable to none in the entire of the European continents. It is in reference to these developments that this study investigates whether the impacts of renewable energy have consolidated the economic growth prospects of the country. To ensure this, quarterly time series data from 1971Q1 to 2013QIV was used. The study employed the Clemente-Montanes-Reyes detrended structural break test, the Bayer-Hanck combined cointegration test and the ARDL bounds testing approach to cointegration. In addition, the causality analysis was observed using VECM Granger causality framework. The results confirmed the existence of cointegration among the variables. The results show that renewable energy consumption in Germany consolidates the country's economic growth prospects to the extend that a 1% increase in renewable energy consumption boosts German economic growth by 0.2194%. In addition to that, a 1% increase in capital lead to the rise in economic growth by 1.1320%. While a 0.5125% increase in economic growth is due to 1% increase in labor productivity. The causality analysis on the other hand, revealed the existence of feedback effect between renewable energy consumption and economic growth. While the relationship between renewable energy consumption and capital is found to be bidirectional and same inference was found to exist between capital and economic growth. The study proposes solid mechanisms that will help in averting renewable energy market failure locally and internationally among others.

This study empirically investigates the relationship between CO 2 emission and four of its potentially contributing factors (i.e., energy consumption, income, trade openness and population) using time series data from 1971 to 2013 on five selected economies of South Asia. After confirming that all the series are stationary using unit root test process, the study incorporates three different and advance panel cointegration tests i.e. Pedroni- Kao- and Johansen-Fisher-panel cointegration. All the panel cointegration tests confirm that all the variables cointegrated. The long-run association between the variables is checked using FMOLS-grouped and individual cross-section country in the panel. The FMOLS grouped results show that energy consumption, trade openness and population increases environmental degradation in the panel countries with exception of income which has negative impact and sounds the existence of Environmental Kuznet curve between income and emission. The innovative accounting approach using variance decomposition test and impulse response function is applied to examine the causality amongst the underlined vectors. The results show that there is bidirectional causality between energy consumption and trade openness and uni-directional causality running from energy consumption, trade openness and population to CO 2 emission. The results enumerate that the energy consumption and population density will increase in long-run and foresee further environmental degradation in the region.

WOS: 000399269300060, The aim of this research is to investigate the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH) in Ghana utilizing CO2 emission as an indicator of air pollution for the period of 1980-2012. Moreover, we utilized gross domestic product (GDP), GDP square, energy consumption, renewable energy consumption, fossil fuel energy consumption, foreign direct investment, institutional quality, urbanization and trade openness as its main determinants. To achieve the goals of this research, different time series models were established utilizing the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) method. In addition to the fact that structural breaks are introduced into the estimation process, we contribute to the existing literature by focussing on a country that typifies the current scenario of increasing emission and foreign direct investment in the developing countries. The outcome of this research revealed cointegration which indicates the existence of long run relationship between the variables. Moreover, GDP, foreign direct investment, urban population, financial development and international trade have positive impact on CO2 emission, while institutional quality decreases emissions in Ghana. This indicates that PHH does exist in Ghana. A number of policy recommendations were provided for Ghana according to the results obtained.

WOS: 000399401700088, PubMed: 28293824, The objective of this study is to explore the influence of the real income (GDP), renewable energy consumption and non-renewable energy consumption on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions for the United States of America (USA) in the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) model for the period 1980-2014. The Zivot-Andrews unit root test with a structural break and the Clemente-Montanes-Reyes unit root test with a structural break report that the analyzed variables become stationary at first-differences. The Gregory-Hansen cointegration test with a structural break and the bounds testing for cointegration in the presence of a structural break show CO2 emissions, the real income, the quadratic real income, renewable and non-renewable energy consumption are cointegrated. The long-run estimates obtained from the ARDL model indicate that increases in renewable energy consumption mitigate environmental degradation whereas increases in non-renewable energy consumption contribute to CO2 emissions. In addition, the EKC hypothesis is not valid for the USA. Since we use time-series econometric approaches that account for structural break in the data, findings of this study are robust, reliable and accurate. The US government is advised to put more weights on renewable sources in energy mix, to support and encourage the use and adoption of renewable energy and clean technologies, and to increase the public awareness of renewable energy for lower levels of emissions.

WOS: 000400784400001, This study aims to explore the relationship between economic growth, urbanisation, financial development and electricity consumption in United Arab Emirates for the period 1975-2011. The ARDL bounds testing approach is employed to examine the long-run relationship between the variables in the presence of structural breaks. The VECM Granger causality is applied to investigate the direction of causal relationships between the variables. Our empirical exercise validated the cointegration between the series in the case of United Arab Emirates. Further, results reveal that an inverted U-shaped relationship is found between economic growth and electricity consumption. Financial development adds in electricity consumption. The relationship between urbanisation and electricity consumption is also an inverted U-shaped. This implies that urbanisation increases electricity consumption initially and, after a threshold level of urbanisation, electricity demand falls. The causality analysis finds feedback hypothesis between economic growth and electricity consumption, i.e. economic growth and electricity consumption are interdependent. The bidirectional causality is found between financial development and electricity consumption. Economic growth and urbanisation Granger cause each other. The feedback hypothesis is also found between urbanisation and financial development, financial development and economic growth, and the same is true for electricity consumption and urbanisation.

A few studies are found on the relationship between financial instability, energy consumption and environmental quality in energy economics literature. The current study is an endeavor to fill this gap by investigating the relationship between financial stability, economic growth, energy consumption and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions in South Asian countries over the period 1980–2012 using a multivariate framework. Bounds test for cointegration and Granger causality approach are employed for the empirical analysis. Estimated results suggest that all variables are non-stationary and cointegrated. The results show that financial stability improves environmental quality; while the increase in economic growth, energy consumption and population density are detrimental for environment quality in the long-run. The results also support the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis which assumes an inverted U-shaped path between income and environmental quality. Moreover, the study found the evidence of unidirectional causality running from financial stability to CO 2 emissions in two countries i.e. Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The findings of this study open up new insight for policy makers to design a comprehensive financial, economic and energy supply policies to minimize the detrimental impact of environmental pollution.

The current empirical study explores the linkage between carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, average temperature, cultivated area, consumption of fertilizer, and rice production in Pakistan. For this research, the annual time series data from 1968 to 2014 were used to enhance the validity of the empirical outcomes. The cointegration analysis with the auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach is applied to explore the effects of climate change on rice production. Additionally, the estimated long-run outcomes are verified by employing fully modified ordinary least squared (FMOLS) and canonical cointegrating regression (CCR) approaches. The empirical outcomes revealed that the selected important study variables are cointegrated demonstrating the existence of long-run linkages among them. The main fruitful outcomes of this study are that rice production in Pakistan is positively affected by the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in both long-run and short-run.

The rapid agricultural development and mechanization of agronomic diligence has led to a significant growth in energy consumption and CO2 emission. Agriculture has a dominant contribution to boosting the economy of any country. In this paper, we demonstrate carbon dioxide emissions&rsquo, association with cropped area, energy use, fertilizer offtake, gross domestic product per capita, improved seed distribution, total food grains and water availability in Pakistan for the period of 1987-2017. We employed Augmented Dickey-Fuller and Phillips-Perron unit root tests to examine the variables&rsquo, stationarity. An autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing technique to cointegration was applied to demonstrate the causality linkage among study variables from the evidence of long-run and short-run analyses. The long-run evidence reveals that cropped area, energy usage, fertilizer offtake, gross domestic product per capita and water availability have a positive and significant association with carbon dioxide emissions, while the analysis results of improved seed distribution and total food grains have a negative association with carbon dioxide emissions in Pakistan. Overall, the long-run effects are stronger than the short-run dynamics, in terms of the impact of explanatory variables on carbon dioxide emission, thus making the findings heterogeneous. Possible initiatives should be taken by the government of Pakistan to improve the agriculture sector and also introduce new policies to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide.

This study investigates whether air pollution from the BRICS countries influences air pollution of their neighboring countries for the period of 1990–2013. To realize the aim of this study, five panel models were established by utilizing CO2 emissions of each of the BRICS neighboring countries as the dependent variable and gross domestic product (GDP), electricity consumption, trade openness, urbanization, and CO2 emissions of the BRICS countries as the independent variables. Based on the Kao cointegration test results, the variables in each of the five models were cointegrated and indicating the existence of a long-run relationship. Moreover, the panel fully modified ordinary least square also revealed that electricity consumption, GDP growth, trade openness, urbanization, and CO2 emissions of the BRICS countries increase CO2 emissions of their neighboring countries in the long run. In addition, the VECM Granger causality results show the existence of a number of causal relationships between CO2 emissions of the BRICS countries and their neighboring countries’ CO2 emissions, electricity consumption, GDP growth, trade openness, and urbanization. Based on the results obtained, a number of policy recommendations are provided for the investigated countries.

WOS: 000457020400005, This paper investigates the electricity-growth nexus of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries from 1980 to 2014. To achieve the goal of this research, both panel cointegration and causality approaches are utilised to examine the long-term and causal relationships between variables. Empirical results confirm the presence of cointegration between variables. Moreover, this study finds that electricity consumption affects the long-term economic growth. Given that GCC member countries are energy-dependent economies, policies that aim to conserve energy consumption may jeopardise economic growth.

This paper estimates the short- and long-run effects of Internet usage and economic growth on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions using OECD panel data for the period 1991–2012. The Pedroni panel cointegration test confirms that the variables are cointegrated. Although Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimates indicate a positive significant long-run relationship between Internet usage and CO2 emissions, the coefficient is very small and no causality exists between them, which both imply that the rapid growth in Internet usage is still not an environmental threat for the region. The study further indicates that economic growth has no significant short-run and long-run effects on CO2 emissions. Internet use stimulates both financial development and trade openness. The findings offer support in favor of the argument that OECD countries can promote their Internet usage without being significantly concerned about its environmental consequences. But the future emissions effect of Internet usage cannot be ruled out, as is evident from the variance decomposition analysis. Therefore, this study recommends that in addition to boosting the existing measures for combating CO2 emissions, OECD countries need to use ICT equipment not to simply reduce its own carbon footprint but also to exploit ICT-enabled emissions abatement potential to reduce emissions in other sectors, such as the power, energy, agricultural, transport and service sectors.

WOS: 000388785300061, The present study incorporates globalization and energy intensity into the CO2 emissions function and investigates the presence of Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) in 19 African countries for the time period of 1971-2012. We have applied the ARDL bounds testing approach for cointegration to examine the long run relationship in the variables. Our results confirmed the presence of cointegration between the series in Africa, Algeria, Angola, Cameroon, Congo Republic, Ghana, Kenya, Libya, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The results indicated the positive effect of energy intensity on CO2 emissions in Africa, Algeria, Angola, Cameroon, Congo Republic, Ghana, Kenya, Libya, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan, Togo, and Tunisia while energy intensity declines CO2 emissions in the case of Zambia and Zimbabwe. Globalization decreases CO2 emissions in Africa, Angola, Cameroon, Congo Republic, Egypt, Kenya, Libya, Tunisia and Zambia but increases CO2 emissions in Ghana, Morocco, South Africa, Sudan and Tanzania. The EKC exists in Africa, Algeria, Cameroon, Congo Republic, Morocco, Tunisia and Zambia but U-shaped relationship is found between economic growth and CO2 emissions in Sudan and Tanzania.

WOS: 000382674800089, PubMed: 27421853, This paper attempts to investigate the emissions embodied in Australia's economic growth and disaggregate primary energy sources used for electricity production. Using time series data over the period of 1990-2012, the ARDL bounds test approach to cointegration technique is applied to test the long-run association among the underlying variables. The regression results validate the long-run equilibrium relationship among all vectors and confirm that CO2 emissions, economic growth, and disaggregate primary energy consumption impact each other in the long-run path. Afterwards, the long- and short-run analyses are conducted using error correction model. The results show that economic growth, coal, oil, gas, and hydro energy sources have positive and statistically significant impact on CO2 emissions both in long and short run, with an exception of renewables which has negative impact only in the long run. The results conclude that Australia faces wide gap between emission abatement policies and targets. The country still relies on emission intensive fossil fuels (i.e., coal and oil) to meet the indigenous electricity demand.

WOS: 000378707800005, This paper examines the long-run and causal relationship issues between economic growth, carbon emissions, energy consumption, foreign trade ratio, and employment ratio in Cyprus and Malta by using autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach of cointegration and error-correction-based Granger causality models. Empirical results over the period 1980-2006 suggest an evidence of a long-run relationship between the variables at 5% significance level only in Malta. Thus, Granger causality models are estimated only for Malta. Results for the existence and direction of Granger causality show that the causality runs from carbon emissions, energy consumption, foreign trade ratio, and employment ratio to economic growth but not vice versa in Malta. The overall results indicate that energy conservation policies, such as rationing energy consumption and controlling carbon dioxide emissions, are likely to have no adverse effect on the real output growth of Malta.

WOS: 000378705900011, This study attempts to investigate the long-run Granger causality relationship between energy consumption, carbon emissions, economic growth, and trade openness in Sri Lanka. Our analysis reveals that, there exists long-run causal relationship between carbon emission and economic growth for Sri Lanka over the period of 1971-2006. In addition, there is unidirectional causality running from economic growth to the carbon emission and energy consumption. The result implies that carbon emission reduction policies will hurt economic growth if no supplementary policies are taken to modify this causal relationship.

The aim of this research is to examine the effect of energy prices on pollution and investigate the existence of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis in 27 advanced economies. The panel non-stationary techniques were used to examine the selected economies taking the period of 1990–2012. The panel Kao and Fisher cointegration results showed that CO2 emission (CO2), gross domestic product (GDP), renewable energy consumption (RE), non-renewable energy consumption (NR), trade openness (TD), urbanization (UR), and energy prices (PC) are cointegrated. Moreover, the panel fully modified ordinary least square and the vector error correction Granger causality results revealed that GDP, NR, and UR increase CO2 emission while RE, TD, and PC reduce it. Furthermore, the inverted U-shaped relationship between GDP and CO2 emission was confirmed which signifies the presence of the EKC hypothesis. From the obtained results, multiple policy implications were provided for the investigated countries to help them control and reduce air pollution without harming their economic growth and development.

This study attempts to analyse the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth in Vietnam using the neoclassical Solow growth framework for the 1971–2011 period. The concept and methods of cointegration and Granger causality are used to establish the relationship between the variables of interest. Our results confirm the existence of cointegration among the variables. In particular, energy consumption, FDI and capital stock were found positively influence economic growth in Vietnam. The Granger causality test revealed unidirectional causality running from energy consumption to economic growth. Hence, Vietnam is an energy-dependent economy and any energy or environment policy drawn up in an attempt to conserve energy will jeopardise the process of economic development in Vietnam. For this reason, the renewable energy policy should be given attention to provide sufficient supplies of energy to speed up economic expansion. Investment in R&D may be required to incentivise private/public institutions to engage in this innovation, while the awareness for energy-saving policy among public could be integrated to meet social economic development.

This study examines the long-run and short-run effects of financial development, economic growth, export, imports and capital on the Japanese energy predicaments as a result of the foregoing energy crisis in the country. To ensure a robust outcome, the study applied the extended Cobb–Douglas production function and used time series data from 1970 to 2012. Following to this, structural break unit root test, ARDL bounds test approach to cointegration and the Johansen cointegration test were applied. In addition, the VECM Granger causality framework was used in determining the causal relationship between the variables. The findings of the study establish that, in the long-run a 1% rise in financial development, economic growth, exports and imports in Japan will exert a significant pressure on the Japanese electricity consumption by 0.2429%; 0.5040%; 0.0921% and 0.2193% respectively. However, capital was found to decline energy consumption in all material respect. In the short-run, the study discovered how a 1% rise in the dynamics of financial development, economic growth, exports and imports to add to the Japanese electricity predicaments by 0.2210%; 0.5840%; 0.0521% and 0.2031% respectively. The existence of the feedback relationship between most of the variables was discovered, while, economic growth, exports, imports, and trade openness were found to Granger-cause electricity consumption. The study advocates the adoption of massive but competitive renewable energy system in Japan. How it should be done and why it should be done are carefully set by this study.

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between hydroelectricity consumption and economic growth in seven Latin America countries including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. The analysis is conducted within a neoclassical model involving capital and labour force, for the period of 1970–2012. We utilize a recently developed cointegration test to investigate the long run relationship in the variables. Having established that the variables are cointegrated, the results indicate long run bidirectional causality between hydroelectricity consumption and economic growth in Argentina and Venezuela. There is evidence for long run unidirectional causality from hydroelectricity consumption to economic growth in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. The long run coefficients from the regression analyses suggest that hydroelectricity consumption positively affect the economies of these Latin American countries. However, limited evidence of causality between the two variables is found in the short run. The ensuing policy implications of the findings are discussed.

This study explores the effect of economic growth (GDP), renewable energy consumption (RE) and financial development (FD) on CO2 emission (CO2) in Latin America and Caribbean countries. To achieve this goal, a panel CO2 model was built over the period 1980–2010. The Kao cointegration test results revealed that the variables are cointegrated. The Fully Modified OLS (FMOLS) results indicated an inverted U-shape relationship between CO2 and GDP, thus confirming the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis. Furthermore, FMOLS results also revealed that FD can improve environmental quality by its negative long-run effect on CO2. However, RE has no long-run effect on CO2 indicating that the RE does not contribute to CO2 reduction. The VECM Granger causality results revealed feedback causality between GDP, RE, FD and CO2 in both short- and long-run. Additionally, Granger causality results also revealed that RE, GDP, and FD can be a good solution to reduce environmental damage since they have a causal effect on CO2. This study shows the investigated countries should increase their banking loans on green energy, energy efficiency and energy saving projects to reduce environmental damage. In addition, the above recommendation can increase the contribution of renewable energy in reducing environmental damage.

The purpose of this paper is to reveal the long run dynamics of biomass energy consumption and GDP growth through homogeneous and heterogeneous variance structures for G7 countries. It covers annual data from 1980 to 2009. Panel unit root analyses, panel cointegration analyses, conventional OLS and dynamic OLS analyses are run throughout homogeneous and heterogeneous variance structures of the panel data to examine the relationship. The findings show that the long run elasticities of panel real GDP data in terms of panel capital stock, panel human capital index and panel biomass consumption are significant and positive. The results confirmed the growth hypothesis in which biomass energy consumption have positive effects on economic growth of G7 countries. As a policy implication, energy policies which improve the biomass energy infrastructure and biomass supply are the appropriate options for G7 countries since biomass energy consumption increases the economic growth. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Based on the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis, this paper uses panel cointegration techniques to investigate the short and the long-run relationship between CO2 emissions, economic growth, renewable energy consumption and trade openness for a panel of 24 Sub-Saharan Africa countries over the period 1980-2010. The validity of the EKC hypothesis has not been supported for these countries. Short-run Granger causality results reveal that there is a bidirectional causality between emissions and economic growth; bidirectional causality between emissions and real exports; unidirectional causality from real imports to emissions; and unidirectional causality runs from trade (exports or imports) to renewable energy consumption. There is an indirect short-run causality running from emissions to renewable energy and an indirect short-run causality from GDP to renewable energy. In the long-run, the error correction term is statistically significant for emissions, renewable energy consumption and trade openness. The long-run estimates suggest that real GDP per capita and real imports per capita both have a negative and statistically significant impact on per capita CO2 emissions. The impact of the square of real GDP per capita and real exports per capita are both positive and statistically significant on per capita CO2 emissions. For the model with imports, renewable energy consumption per capita has a positive impact on per capita emissions. One policy recommendation is that Sub-Saharan countries should expand their trade exchanges particularly with developed countries and try to maximize their benefit from technology transfer generated by such trade relations as this increases their renewable energy consumption.

The 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP) is a strategic plan focused on attaining a level of economic growth that will enable the country to attain a developed nation status by 2020. As a result of this ambitious plan, this paper aims to investigate empirically if the nexus between natural gas consumption, exports, capital and labour could provide a clue to the possibilities of reaching this target. The study applied time series data from 1971 to 2012 and used dual structural break tests. To ensure robust result, the Bayer–Hanck cointegration, Johansen cointegration and the ARDL bounds tests were applied. The findings of the study reveal that economic growth does not Granger cause natural gas consumption in Malaysia. However, the results show that capital and export contribute 29.18% and 41.46% to the country׳s GDP after 20.04% and 42.29% of natural gas consumption respectively. Also it suggests that natural gas consumption has an indirect effect to the Malaysian economic growth wherewithal. Labour was on the other hand, found to have a minimal contribution to GDP. The study proposes the efficient exploitation of natural gas reserves of the country, a concerted effort to develop the labour force and ensure a realistic time for the plan among others.

WOS: 000355035900037, The main goal of this study is to examine the events that caused the environmental degradation in the MENA (Middle East and North African) region. To achieve the goal of this study, a panel model that represents the environmental degradation utilizing ecological footprint as a better indicator is constructed taken the period 1996-2012 investigating 14 MENA countries. The results from the Pedroni cointegration test revealed that ecological footprint, energy consumption, urbanization, trade openness, industrial development and political stability are cointegrated. Moreover, the results of FMOLS (fully modified ordinary least square) concluded that energy consumption, urbanization, trade openness and industrial development increases environmental damage while the political stability lessens it in the long run. In addition, the Granger causality revealed that the used variables have short run and long run causal relationship with the ecological footprint. Moreover, different directions of causal relationship were found between the variables. According to the outcomes of this study, a number of policy recommendations were provided for the MENA countries that can help them to reduce their environmental degradation.

WOS: 000399267100008, This paper reinvestigates the relationship between urbanization and energy consumption in case of Pakistan for the period of 1972Q1-2011Q4 by employing the STIRPAT (Stochastic Impact by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology) model. We have employed the ARDL bounds testing approach to cointegration in the presence of structural breaks stemming in the series to count for these missing elements in other studies. Finally, the VECM Granger causality approach has been applied to examine the causal relationship between the variables. Our results show that urbanization adds in energy consumption. Affluence (economic growth) increases energy demand. Technology has positive impact on energy consumption. An increase in transportation is positively linked with energy consumption. The causality analysis indicates the unidirectional causality running from urbanization to energy consumption.

2nd International Conference on Water, Energy, and Environment (ICWEE) -- SEP 21-24, 2013 -- Kusadasi, TURKEY, WOS: 000350331300067, PubMed: 25277709, The present study is aimed to explore the relationship between coal consumption, industrial production, and CO2 emissions in China and India for the period of 1971-2011. The structural break unit root test and cointegrating approach have been applied. The direction of causal relationship between the variables is investigated by applying the VECM Granger causality test. Our results validate the presence of cointegration among the series in both countries. Our results also validate the existence of inverted U-shaped curve between industrial production and CO2 emissions for India, but for China, it is a U-shaped relationship. Coal consumption adds in CO2 emissions. The causality analysis reveals that industrial production and coal consumption Granger cause CO2 emissions in India. In the case of China, the feedback effect exists between coal consumption and CO2 emissions. Due to the importance of coal in China and India, any reduction in coal consumption will negatively affect their industrial value added as well as economic growth., Izmir Katip Celebi Univ, Amer Univ Sharjah, United Arab Emirates Univ

WOS: 000340312100067, The present study explores the relationship between economic growth, electricity consumption, urbanization and environmental degradation in case of United Arab Emirates (UAE). The study covers the quarter frequency data over the period of 1975-2011. We have applied the ARDL bounds testing approach to examine the long run relationship between the variables in the presence of structural breaks. The VECM Granger causality is applied to investigate the direction of causal relationship between the variables. Our empirical exercise reported the existence of cointegration among the series. Further, we found an inverted U-shaped relationship between economic growth and CO2 emissions i.e. economic growth raises energy emissions initially and declines it after a threshold point of income per capita (EKC exists). Electricity consumption declines CO2 emissions. The relationship between urbanization and CO2 emissions is positive. Exports seem to improve the environmental quality by lowering CO2 emissions. The causality analysis validates the feedback effect between CO2 emissions and electricity consumption. Economic growth and urbanization Granger cause CO2 emissions

WOS: 000388785300027, The aim of this research is to investigate how renewable energy consumption effects pollution and whether the relationship between income and pollution formulates the inverted U-shaped relationship which signals the existence of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC). To realize the aims of this study, non-stationary panel data techniques were utilized to examine the seven selected regions. According to Pedroni and Fisher type cointegration tests, the variables were cointegrated. Moreover, the dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) and the vector error correction model Granger causality revealed that renewable energy consumption has a significant negative effect on pollution in Central and Eastern Europe, Western Europe, East Asia and the Pacific, South Asia, and the Americas. However, the tests revealed that renewable energy consumption has no significant effect on pollution in the Middle East and North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, the results in general indicated that the existence of the EKC hypothesis is determined by the significance of the renewable energy consumption. Therefore, the EKC hypothesis was only found in the regions where their renewable energy has a significant correlation with pollution in both the short run and the long run. Furthermore, a number of policy recommendations were provided for the investigated regions.

The paper investigates the causality relationships among industrial production index, coal consumption and employment in industrial sector for the period of 1973:1-2011:10 in USA. After noticing that there are breaks in the regression model, the Hatemi-J test for cointegration is employed to the cases that take into account two possible regime shifts. It is concluded that there is a long run relationship between industrial production and industrial coal consumption with the breaks at 1983:4 and 1998:4. We found a negative relationship between coal consumption and industrial production for the period of 1973:1-1983:4 and positive relationship for 1983:5-1998:4 period. For the last period that covers 1983:5-2011:10, the cointegration relationship turned to negative. In addition, the results show that causal relationship between coal consumption and industrial production changes over time. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This paper examines the long run and causal relationship issues between economic growth, carbon emissions, energy consumption and employment ratio in Turkey by using autoregressive distributed lag bounds testing approach of cointegration. Empirical results for Turkey over the period 1968–2005 suggest an evidence of a long-run relationship between the variables at 5% significance level in Turkey. The estimated income elasticity of carbon emissions per capita is −0.606 and the income elasticity of energy consumption per capita is 1.375. Results for the existence and direction of Granger causality show that neither carbon emissions per capita nor energy consumption per capita cause real GDP per capita, but employment ratio causes real GDP per capita in the short run. In addition, EKC hypothesis at causal framework by using a linear logarithmic model is not valid in Turkish case. The overall results indicates that energy conservation policies, such as rationing energy consumption and controlling carbon dioxide emissions, are likely to have no adverse effect on the real output growth of Turkey.

WOS: 000278445200010, This article examines sustainability of current account for Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. Using the usual intertemporal borrowing constraint, we have tested for a long-run relationship between exports and imports plus net transfer payments and net interest payments. In our empirical analysis of the sustainability of current account, cointegration approaches have been used. Empirical results suggest that in the case of Peru, there exists a unique long run or equilibrium relationship among real exports and imports. In the case of Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina, cointegration results suggest that these countries' current accounts are not sustainable in the long run.

WOS: 000371156100070, PubMed: 26527347, This study estimates the short- and long-run effects of Internet usage and economic growth on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions using annual time series macro data for Australia for the period 1985-2012. Autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) bounds and Gregory-Hansen structural break cointegration tests are applied. ARDL estimates indicate no significant long-run relationship between Internet usage and CO2 emissions, which implies that the rapid growth in Internet usage is still not an environmental threat for Australia. The study further indicates that higher level of economic growth is associated with lower level of CO2 emissions; however, Internet usage and economic growth have no significant short-run relationship with CO2 emissions. Financial development has both short-run and long-run significant positive association with CO2 emissions. The findings offer support in favor of energy efficiency gains and a reduction in energy intensity in Australia. However, impulse response and variance decomposition analysis suggest that Internet usage, economic growth and financial development will continue to impact CO2 emissions in the future, and as such, this study recommends that in addition to the existing measures to combat CO2 emissions, Australia needs to exploit the potential of the Internet not only to reduce its own carbon footprint but also to utilize information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled emissions abatement potential to reduce emissions in various other sectors across the economy, such as, power, renewable energy especially in solar and wind energy, agriculture, transport and service., Australian Government's Collaborative Research Network (CRN) funding through the Australian Digital Future Institute (ADFI) of the University of Southern Queensland, Except for the contribution of Ozturk, this study is fully supported by the Australian Government's Collaborative Research Network (CRN) funding through the Australian Digital Future Institute (ADFI) of the University of Southern Queensland. The authors are very grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments that helped improve the quality of the paper significantly. A usual disclaimer applies.

WOS: 000362329300049, PubMed: 25994273, The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of financial development on CO2 emission in 129 countries classified by the income level. A panel CO2 emission model using urbanisation, GDP growth, trade openness, petroleum consumption and financial development variables that are major determinants of CO2 emission was constructed for the 1980-2011 period. The results revealed that the variables are cointegrated based on the Pedroni cointegration test. The dynamic ordinary least squares (OLS) and the Granger causality test results also show that financial development can improve environmental quality in the short run and long run due to its negative effect on CO2 emission. The rest of the determinants, especially petroleum consumption, are determined to be the major source of environmental damage in most of the income group countries. Based on the results obtained, the investigated countries should provide banking loans to projects and investments that can promote energy savings, energy efficiency and renewable energy to help these countries reduce environmental damage in both the short and long run.

WOS: 000347741600024, This study re-investigates the export-led growth hypothesis for Asia's Four Little Dragons using cointegration and rolling causality analyses. Employing both bivariate (exports and GDP) and trivariate (exports, GDP and exchange rate) models, the study finds that exports and GDP are cointegrated for all the four economies, implying that there is a long run relationship between the variables. However, the rolling regression-based MWALD test shows that export-led growth in each of the four economies is not stable over their respective period of analysis. Instead of export, policymakers should start to search for alternative catalyst of growth to continuously as well as effectively promote long-term economic growth in the Four Little Dragon economies. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

WOS: 000363966900041, PubMed: 26018289, The aim of this paper is to examine the causal relationship between CO2 emissions, real GDP, energy consumption, financial development, trade openness, and urbanization in Tunisia over the period of 1971-2012. The long-run relationship is investigated by the auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to cointegration and error correction method (ECM). The results of the analysis reveal a positive sign for the coefficient of financial development, suggesting that the financial development in Tunisia has taken place at the expense of environmental pollution. The Tunisian case also shows a positive monotonic relationship between real GDP and CO2 emissions. This means that the results do not support the validity of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. In addition, the paper explores causal relationship between the variables by using Granger causality models and it concludes that financial development plays a vital role in the Tunisian economy.