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The aim of this study is to test the validity of the Kuznets Environmental Curve (EKC) hypothesis for Iran. For this purpose, this study used the FourierARDL method and causality test with time change to analyze the short-term and long-term relationships between economic growth, economic complexity index, energy consumption, and ecological footprint. Findings from the Fourier ARDL approach confirm the existence of coherence between variables. In addition, the results of this study show that energy consumption and economic growth increase the ecological footprint in the short and long term. However, the short-term elasticity of economic growth is smaller than the long-term elasticity, meaning that the EKC hypothesis is not valid for Iran. This finding is confirmed by the causality test with time change. The overall results show that economic complexity has a diminishing effect on the ecological footprint and economic growth is not effective in solving environmental problems in Iran. Therefore, the Iranian government should encourage an environmentally friendly production process and cleaner technologies in exports to reduce environmental pollution.

Globalization is a driving force in emitting carbon dioxide (CO2), which causes countries to interact with each other economically, socially and politically. The interaction between countries will inevitably affect CO2 emissions. The aim of this study is to investigate the dynamic effects of globalization and energy consumption on environmental degradation in Iran. Therefore, it examines which variable (globalization, energy consumption or economic growth) is more effective in the process of environmental degradation. The Fully Modified Least Squares (FMOLS) and Charnes, Cooper and Rhodes (CCR) models are applied to investigate the subject over the period 1978-2016. In addition, Maki co-integration test is used to check the long-term dynamic relationships. The results show that globalization increases environmental degradation regardless of the decrease or increase in economic growth. This indicates that the scale effect of is dominant in Iran.