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Reinvigorating the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in the context of highly polluted nations: evidence using advanced panel estimation techniques

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Abstract

China, United States, India, Russia, and Japan are regarded as the top five carbon dioxide-emitting nations in the world. These countries altogether account for more than half of the global annual discharges of carbon dioxide. Consequently, impeding the carbon emission-led environmental adversities in these countries is of critical emphasis for establishing environmental sustainability worldwide. In this regard, this study checks how economic progress, energy use intensification, and renewable energy use affect the annual growth rates of per capita carbon dioxide emission in these highly-polluted economies considering the study period from 1990 to 2021. Besides, for analytical purposes, advanced panel data estimation techniques have been utilized for detecting and neutralizing the impacts of cross-sectional dependency and slope heterogeneity-related problems in the data. Overall, the findings endorse that economic progress deteriorates environmental quality both in the short and long run. However, since the long-run unfavorable environmental impacts of economic growth are relatively lower compared with the short-run impacts, the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis can be deemed valid. Besides, more intensive use of energy resources is witnessed to impose negative long-run environmental consequences while the adoption of renewable energy instead of fossil fuels is found to improve environmental well-being, both in the short and long run. Furthermore, the results affirm that economic progress and energy use intensification jointly degrade environmental conditions. By contrast, economic progress alongside greater adoption of renewable energy is observed to inflict an environmental quality-improving effect. Considering these findings, a couple of carbon dioxide mitigating policies are suggested to the concerned highly polluted developed and developing nations.

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Fig. 1

Source: World Bank (2023)

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Data availability

Data sources are mentioned in the text.

Abbreviations

CO2 :

Carbon dioxide

COP27:

27th Conference of Parties

CRSADF:

Cross-sectionally adjusted Augmented Dickey-Fuller

CRS-ARDL:

Cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lag

CRSD:

Cross-sectional dependency

CRSIPS:

Cross-sectionally adjusted Im–Pesaran–Shin

EKCH:

Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis

GDP:

Gross domestic product

PMG-ARDL:

Pooled mean group-autoregressive distributed lag

PPP:

Purchasing power parity

SLHET:

Slope heterogeneity

UNSDG:

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

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Funding

This study is supported via funding from Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University project number PSAU/2023/R/1444.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, School of Business and Economics, North South University, Dhaka, 1229, Bangladesh

    A. K. M. Atiqur Rahman & Muntasir Murshed

  2. Department of Applied Economics I, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Ciudad Real, Spain

    Jesus Cantero Galiano & Daniel Balsalobre-Lorente

  3. Department of Journalism, Media and Communications, Daffodil International University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

    Muntasir Murshed

  4. Department of Finance, College of Business Administration, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, 173, Alkharj, 11942, Saudi Arabia

    Haider Mahmood

  5. Department of Agricultural Finance and Banking, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, 2202, Bangladesh

    Md. Emran Hossain

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  1. A. K. M. Atiqur Rahman
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Contributions

AKMAR, JCG, and MM conceptualized, wrote the original draft, wrote the revised draft, and conducted the analysis. HM compiled the literature review and generated the graphical illustrations, and reviewed and edited the final draft. DB supervised, compiled data, and wrote the original draft. MEH compiled the literature review, conducted the econometric analysis, and contributed to the methodology section.

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Correspondence to A. K. M. Atiqur Rahman.

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Rahman, A.K.M.A., Galiano, J.C., Murshed, M. et al. Reinvigorating the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in the context of highly polluted nations: evidence using advanced panel estimation techniques. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 103212–103224 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-29237-7

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