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Environmental implications of N-shaped environmental Kuznets curve for E7 countries

Environmental Science and Pollution Research volume 28, pages 33072–33082 (2021)Cite this article

Abstract

The environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis is of great importance to understanding the relationship between economic activity and environmental degradation. Given the current wave of climate change and environmental crisis traced to rising environmental pollution from economic activities, it has become important to investigate the impact of economic expansion on the environment especially in the emerging-7 countries that are responsible for a large amount of global economic activity. This study investigates the N-shaped EKC for the E-7 countries using data spanning the period 1995–2018. The study employs the use of PMG-ARDL estimator and heterogeneous causality tests to establish the long run and short run and direction of causality respectively regarding the variables of interest. According to study empirical results, the long-run results fail to confirm the presence of an N-shaped EKC in the emerging 7 countries but rather confirms the existence of an inverted U-shaped EKC in the study countries. While renewable energy and non-renewable energy have a positive and significant relationship with CO2 emissions, short run results show that there is no significant relationship between economic expansion, renewable energy, non-renewable energy and CO2 emissions. Causality tests showed a bi-directional causality between GDP- and GDP-squared and a uni-directional causality from CO2 emissions to GDP-cubed, non-renewable energy and CO2 emissions, renewable energy, and CO2 emissions. The study suggests increased use of renewable energy to mitigate pollutant emissions in the E-7 countries.

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Fig. 1

Data Availability

The data for this present study are sourced from the World Development Indicators (https://data.worldbank.org/). The current data specific data can be made available upon request but all available and downloadable at the earlier mentioned database and weblink.

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Acknowledgments

Author gratitude is extended to the prospective editor(s) and reviewers that will/have spared time to guide toward a successful publication.

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I hereby declare that there is no form of funding received for this study.

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Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Cyprus International University, Via Mersin 10, Nicosia, North Cyprus, Turkey

    Bright Akwasi Gyamfi & Murad A. Bein

  2. Department of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Bournemouth University, Fern Barrow, Poole, BH12 5BB, UK

    Festus Fatai Adedoyin

  3. Faculty of Economics Administrative and Social Sciences, Istanbul Gelisim University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Festus Victor Bekun

  4. Department of Accounting, Analysis and Audit, School of Economics and Management, South Ural State University, 76, Lenin Aven, Chelyabinsk, Russia, 454080

    Festus Victor Bekun

Authors
  1. Bright Akwasi Gyamfi
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  2. Festus Fatai Adedoyin
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  3. Murad A. Bein
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  4. Festus Victor Bekun
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Contributions

The first authors (Dr Bright Akwasi Gyamfi) were responsible for the conceptual construction of the study’s idea. The second author (Dr Festus Fatai Adedoyin) handled the literature section while third authors (Dr Festus Victor Bekun) managed the data gathering, preliminary analysis and Prof. Dr Murad A. Bein was responsible for proofreading and manuscript editing.

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Correspondence to Festus Victor Bekun.

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Gyamfi, B.A., Adedoyin, F.F., Bein, M.A. et al. Environmental implications of N-shaped environmental Kuznets curve for E7 countries. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 33072–33082 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-12967-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-12967-x

Keywords

  • Environmental Kuznets curve
  • Economic growth
  • Renewable energy
  • Non-renewable energy
  • CO2 emissions