Abstract
This study examines the convergence properties of CO2 intensity in EU-28 countries, using panel data for the period 1990 to 2016. We use Phillips and Sul’s (2007) approach to test for CO2 intensity convergence and identify convergence clubs. In addition to the EU-28 members, we analyze the EU-15, and the new EU members (EU-new) that joined after 2004, as distinct groups for the periods 1990–2016, 1990–2004, and 2005–2016. Our results show no convergence to a single group among the EU countries during the full and two subsample periods. However, the convergence takes place within five to seven clubs for the EU-28 and within three to five clubs for the EU-15 and EU-new. There is no evidence of all members converging to a single club in either group or the three sub-periods examined. This study highlights the need for adopting new strategies considering club properties and for sustainable growth, which meets the EU-28 environmental regulation standards.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Acar S, Lindmark M (2016) Periods of converging carbon dioxide emissions from oil combustion in a pre-Kyoto context. Environ Dev 19(1–9):1–9
Acar S, Lindmark M (2017) Convergence of CO2 emissions and economic growth in the OECD countries: did the type of fuel matter? Energy Sources Part B: Econ Plan Pol 12(7):618–627
Acaravci A, Erdogan S (2016) The convergence behavior of CO2 emissions in seven regions under multiple structural breaks. Intern J En Econ and Pol 6(3):575–580
Aldy JE (2006) Per capita carbon dioxide emissions: convergence or divergence? Environ Res Econ. 33(4):533–555
Apergis N, Payne JE (2017) Per capita carbon dioxide emissions across US states by sector and fossil fuel source: evidence from club convergence tests. Energy Econ 63:365–372
Barassi MR, Cole MA, Elliott RJ (2008) Stochastic divergence or convergence of per capita carbon dioxide emissions: re-examining the evidence. Environ Res Econ. 40(1):121–137
Begum RA, Sohag K, Abdullah SMS, Jaafar M (2015) CO2 emissions, energy consumption, economic and population growth in Malaysia. Renew Sust Energ Rev 41:594–601
Burnett JW (2016) Club convergence and clustering of US energy-related CO2 emissions. Resour Energy Econ 46:62–84
Camarero M, Picazo-Tadeo AJ, Tamarit C (2013) Are the determinants of CO2 emissions converging among OECD countries? Econ Lett 118(1):159–162
Christidou M, Panagiotidis T, Sharma A (2013) On the stationarity of per capita carbon dioxide emissions over a century. Econ Model 33:918–925
Criado CO, Grether JM (2011) Convergence in per capita CO2 emissions: a robust distributional approach. Resour Energy Econ 33(3):637–665
Durlauf SN, Johnson PA, Temple JR (2005) Growth econometrics. Handb Econ Growth 1:555–677
EEA (2016) European Environment Agency. http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/data-viewers/greenhouse-gases-viewer. Accessed 27 Jan 2017
El Montasser G, Ajmi AN, Nguyen DK (2018) Carbon emissions—income relationships with structural breaks: the case of the middle eastern and north African countries. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25(3):2869–2878
Eurostat (2016) The source data for GHG emissions. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database. Accessed 10 Oct 2016 from
Ezcurra R (2007) Is there cross-country convergence in carbon dioxide emissions? Energy Policy 35(2):1363–1372
Farhani S, Ozturk I (2015) Causal relationship between CO2 emissions, real GDP, energy consumption, financial development, trade openness, and urbanization in Tunisia. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22(20):15663–15676
Haseeb A, Xia E, Baloch MA, Abbas K (2018) Financial development, globalization, and CO2 emission in the presence of EKC: evidence from BRICS countries. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25(31):31283–31296
Heidari H, Katircioğlu ST, Saeidpour L (2015) Economic growth, CO2 emissions, and energy consumption in the five ASEAN countries. Int J Electr Power Energy Syst 64:785–791
Herrerias MJ (2012) CO2 weighted convergence across the EU-25 countries (1920–2007). Appl energy 1(92):9-16
Herrerias MJ (2013) The environmental convergence hypothesis: carbon dioxide emissions according to the source of energy. Energy Policy 61:1140–1150
Huang J (2018) Investigating the driving forces of China’s carbon intensity based on a dynamic spatial model. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int 25:21833–21843
Jobert T, Karanfil F, Tykhonenko A (2010) Convergence of per capita carbon dioxide emissions in the EU: legend or reality? Energy Econ 32(6):1364–1373
Korban Z, Manowska A (2011) Wykorzystanie ciągów czasowych w procesie szacowania poziomu emisji dwutlenku węgla [the use of time sequences in the process of estimating carbon dioxide emissions]. Górnictwo i. Geologia 6(4):39–48
Lee CC, Chang CP (2008) New evidence on the convergence of per capita carbon dioxide emissions from panel seemingly unrelated regressions augmented dickey–fuller tests. Energy 33(9):1468–1475
Li X, Lin B (2013) Global convergence in per capita CO2 emissions. Renew Sust Energ Rev 24:357–363
Liu C, Hong T, Li H, Wang L (2018) From club convergence of per capita industrial pollutant emissions to industrial transfer effects: an empirical study across 285 cities in China. Energy Policy 121:300–313
Ozcan B (2013) The nexus between carbon emissions, energy consumption and economic growth in Middle East countries: a panel data analysis. Energy Policy 62:1138–1147
Panopoulou E, Pantelidis T (2009) Club convergence in carbon dioxide emissions. Environ Resour Econ 44(1):47–70
Park Y, Meng F, Baloch MA (2018) The effect of ICT, financial development, growth, and trade openness on CO2 emissions: an empirical analysis. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25(30):30708–30719
Phillips PC, Sul D (2007) Transition modeling and econometric convergence tests. Econometrica 75(6):1771–1855
Phillips PC, Sul D (2009) Economic transition and growth. J Appl Econ 24(7):1153–1185
Quah D (1993) Galton’s fallacy and tests of the convergence hypothesis. Scand J Econ 95:427–443
Quah DT (1996) Convergence empirics across economies with (some) capital mobility. J Econ Growth 1(1):95–124
Quah DT (1997) Empirics for growth and distribution: stratification, polarization, and convergence clubs. J Econ Growth 2(1):27–59
Romero-Ávila D (2008) Convergence in carbon dioxide emissions among industrialised countries revisited. Energy Econ 30(5):2265–2282
Solarin SA (2014) Convergence of CO2 emission levels: evidence from African countries. J Econ Res 19(1):65–92
Stegman A (2005) Convergence in carbon emissions per capita. Department of Economics, Macquarie University, Macquarie
Strazicich MC, List JA (2003) Are CO2 emission levels converging amongst industrial countries? Environ Resour Econ 24(3):263–271
Ulucak R, Apergis N (2018) Does convergence really matter to the environment? An application based on club convergence and on the ecological footprint concept for the EU countries. Environ Sci Pol Res 80:21–27
Van PN (2005) Distribution dynamics of CO 2 emissions. Environ Res Econ 32(4):495–508
Wang Y, Zhang P, Huang D, Cai C (2014) Convergence behavior of carbon dioxide emissions in China. Econ Model 43:75–80
Westerlund J, Basher SA (2008) Testing for convergence in carbon dioxide emissions using a century of panel data. Environ Resour Econ 40(1):109–120
Yavuz NC, Yilanci V (2013) Convergence in per capita carbon dioxide emissions among G7 countries: a TAR panel unit root approach. Environ Resour Econ 54(2):283–291
Yu S, Hu X, Fan JL, Cheng J (2018) Convergence of carbon emissions intensity across Chinese industrial sectors. J Clean Prod 194:179–192
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Emir, F., Balcilar, M. & Shahbaz, M. Inequality in carbon intensity in EU-28: analysis based on club convergence. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26, 3308–3319 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-3858-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-3858-1