Ekonomisk tillväxt och koldioxidutsläpp: En studie av miljökuznetssambandet i relation till både territoriella och konsumtionsbaserade koldioxidutsläpp

Sammanfattning

This study investigates the relationship between income levels and carbon dioxide emissions to examine evidence for or against the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) and thereby the possibility of continued growth without ongoing carbon dioxide emissions. The paper uses data on carbon dioxide emissions derived from both territorial and consumption-based accounting methods as dependent variables. The econometric method is a multiple linear regression analysis for panel data with fixed effects, autoregressive process of order 1 (AR(1)), and robust standard errors. The investigation includes GDP per capita as an independent variable, as well as trade, urbanization, and renewable energy as control variables. The results show that there is support for the EKC with respect to both territorial and consumption-based emissions. The findings also indicate that renewable energy use has a significantly negative impact on carbon dioxide emissions. Another important finding is that the turning point of the EKC occurs earlier for territorial emissions compared to consumption-based emissions and that the turning points occur at high levels of annual GDP per capita of 97,390 USD (2017 currency) for territorial emissions and 67,240 USD (2017 currency) for consumption-based emissions. The paper thus supports the possibility of growth without continued carbon dioxide emissions; however, the high turning points suggest that global emissions will continue to increase, which is not consistent with established climate goals. To allow for the turning point to occur earlier, all countries need to accelerate their climate efforts, and since renewable energy contributes to reduced emissions in this study, investments in this area could be beneficial. The study is important because it contributes to elevate the knowledge in the field and fills a research gap where few studies so far have examined the EKC for consumption-based emissions. The results are also important in discussions related to the idea of green growth, poverty reduction, and reduced carbon dioxide emissions.