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Revisiting the impacts of economic growth on environmental degradation: new evidence from 115 countries

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Abstract

This paper examines the causal relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation for 115 countries over the period 1990–2016. The empirical results show a long-run equilibrium relationship between the CO2, CH4 and PM2.5 emissions and their macroeconomic determinants economic growth, energy consumption, trade openness, urbanization, and transportation. The author found mixed support of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis, confirming the U-shaped EKC for all the income countries in CO2 and an inverted U-shaped EKC both in CH4 and PM2.5 emissions for the low, lower-middle and high-income countries. In the subsequent Granger causality test, the author revealed that energy consumption and economic growth raise the level of CO2, the most significant pollutant because of their positive causal effect. Moreover, the impulse response function forecasts an inverted U-shaped EKC mostly for selected pollutants in all countries. Results suggest that promoting energy efficiency and reducing the use of fossil fuels are effective measures for reversing environmental degradation in the country.

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Notes

  1. Turning point in CH4 emissions for lower-middle income countries is 8.3520 (logarithms) or 4238.65 US dollars and high-income countries is 10.9769 (logarithms) or 58,506.90 US dollars.

  2. Turning point in PM2.5 emissions for low income countries is 6.7445 (logarithms) or 849.37 US dollars and lower-middle income countries is 10.580 (logarithms) or 39340.11 US dollars.

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Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledged the financial support by the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. Author expressed his profound gratitude to Associate Professor George S. Chen, Senior Lecturer Dr Shawn Leu and Professor Renato Andrin (Rene) Villano, Department of Economics, University of New England, Armidale, Australia, for their valuable efforts and constructive suggestions for this research.

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  1. UNE Business School (Economics), University of New England, Armidale, NSW, 2351, Australia

    Mirza Md Moyen Uddin

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Appendices

Appendix 1: The list of investigated countries based on their income level

Low-income countries: Benin, Congo Dem. Rep., Ethiopia, Mozambique, Nepal, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo and Zimbabwe.

Lower-middle-income countries: Angola, Armenia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Cambodia, Cameroon, Congo Rep., Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, El Salvador, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Yemen and Zambia.

Upper-middle-income countries: Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Gabon, Guyana, Iran, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Namibia, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Suriname, Thailand, Turkey, Venezuela.

High-income countries: Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Korea Republic, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, UK, US and Uruguay.

Appendix 2

See Table 6.

Table 6 Summary statistics in stratified income groups of panel data (1990–2016)
Full size table

Appendix 3

See Table 7.

Table 7 Cross-sectional dependence tests results
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Appendix 4

See Table 8.

Table 8 ADF-Fisher, Phillips-Perron, IPS and Pesaran panel unit root test results
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Uddin, M.M.M. Revisiting the impacts of economic growth on environmental degradation: new evidence from 115 countries. Environ Ecol Stat 28, 153–185 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10651-020-00479-9

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