This study investigates the non-linear relationship between urbanization paths and CO₂ emissions in selected South, South-East, and East Asian countries over the period 1971–2014. Based on the STIRPAT (Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology) framework, we applied the advanced and robust methods of dynamic seemingly unrelated regression (DSUR), dynamic OLS (DOLS), and fully modified OLS (FMOLS) to estimate the long-term effects. The empirical findings revealed the inverted U-shaped effects of urbanization and urban agglomeration and the U-shaped impact of the largest city ratio on CO₂ emissions. Urbanization and urban agglomerations improve environmental quality in the long-run and support ecological modernization theory. However, excessive concentration in the largest cities have severely affected the environmental quality and violates the notion of compact-city efficiencies. Moreover, energy intensity and economic growth positively affect CO₂ emissions, while trade openness negatively influences CO₂ emissions. Our robustness analysis at the country-level applies the augmented mean group (AMG) panel ARDL technique, which further supports the non-linear effect of urbanization paths on CO₂ emissions except for a few countries. The results of the panel Granger non-causality approach unveil bidirectional causality of energy efficiency, economic growth, urbanization, and largest city ratio with CO₂ emissions. In contrast, unidirectional causality runs from urban agglomeration to CO₂ emissions. Our findings have important policy implications as we suggest green urban infrastructures, eco-friendly dwellings, smart cities, country-specific trade policies, and renewable energy options to improve the environmental quality.

本研究调查了1971-2014年间部分南亚，东南亚和东亚国家中城市化路径与CO ₂排放之间的非线性关系。基于STIRPAT（回归对人口，富裕度和技术的随机影响）框架，我们应用了动态，看似无关的回归（DSUR），动态OLS（DOLS）和完全修改的OLS（FMOLS）的高级方法。长期影响。实证结果表明，城市化和城市集聚的U形效应是倒置的，最大城市比率对CO ₂的U形影响是反的。排放。从长远来看，城市化和城市群改善了环境质量，并支持了生态现代化理论。但是，大城市中的过度集中严重影响了环境质量，并违反了紧凑型城市效率的概念。此外，能源强度和经济增长对CO ₂排放有积极影响，而贸易开放对CO ₂排放有不利影响。我们在国家/地区级别进行的稳健性分析采用增强平均组（AMG）面板ARDL技术，该技术进一步支持了城市化路径对CO _2的非线性影响少数国家以外的国家。格兰杰非因果关系方法小组的结果揭示了能源效率，经济增长，城市化以及CO ₂排放量最大的城市比率的双向因果关系。相反，单向因果关系从城市集聚到CO ₂排放。我们的研究结果具有重要的政策意义，因为我们建议采用绿色城市基础设施，生态友好型住宅，智慧城市，针对特定国家的贸易政策以及可改善环境质量的可再生能源选择。