Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

The nexus between tourism, economic growth, renewable energy consumption, and carbon dioxide emissions: contemporary evidence from OECD countries

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Environmental Science and Pollution Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The relationship between tourism development, economic growth, renewable energy consumption, and carbon dioxide emissions has been examined in a variety of contexts; however, the extant studies report contradictory findings mainly due to utilizing arbitrary empirical techniques. We present a comprehensive literature review and the effects of tourism development, economic growth, and renewable energy consumption on the carbon dioxide (CO2) emission. Specifically, the effects of gross domestic product, renewable energy consumption, and tourism receipts on carbon dioxide emissions in OECD countries are examined utilizing the bootstrap panel cointegration technique and the augmented mean group estimator. The results showed that tourism development has negative and significant effects on CO2 emission in Canada, Czechia, and Turkey, while tourism development has positive and significant effects on CO2 emission in Italy, Luxembourg, and the Slovak Republic. Also, Belgium, France, New Zealand, and the Slovak Republic have shifted towards sustainable tourism practices. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Acaravci A, Ozturk I (2010) On the relationship between energy consumption, CO2 emissions and economic growth in Europe. Energy 35:5412–5420

    Google Scholar 

  • Agras J, Chapman D (1999) A dynamic approach to the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis. Ecol Econ 28:267–277

    Google Scholar 

  • Ahmad A, Zhao Y, Shahbaz M, Bano S, Zhang Z, Wang S, Liu Y (2016) Carbon emissions, energy consumption and economic growth: an aggregate and disaggregate analysis of the Indian economy. Energy Policy 96:131–143

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ahmad N, Du L, Lu J, Wang J, Li HZ, Hashmi MZ (2017) Modelling the CO2 emissions and economic growth in Croatia: is there any environmental Kuznets curve? Energy 123:164–172

    Google Scholar 

  • Ahmed A, Uddin GS, Sohag K (2016) Biomass energy, technological progress and the environmental Kuznets curve: evidence from selected European countries. Biomass Bioenergy 90:202–208

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ang JB (2007) CO2 emissions, energy consumption, and output in France. Energy Policy 35:4772–4778

    Google Scholar 

  • Apergis N, Ozturk I (2015) Testing environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in Asian countries. Ecol Indic 52:16–22

    Google Scholar 

  • Apergis N, Payne JE (2009) CO2 emissions, energy usage, and output in Central America. Energy Policy 37:3282–3286

    Google Scholar 

  • Apergis N, Payne JE (2010) Renewable energy consumption and economic growth: evidence from a panel of OECD countries. Energy Policy 38:656–660

    Google Scholar 

  • Azam M, Alam MM, Hafeez MH (2018) Effect of tourism on environmental pollution: further evidence from Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. J Clean Prod 190:330–338

    Google Scholar 

  • Baek J (2015) Environmental Kuznets curve for CO2 emissions: the case of Arctic countries. Energy Econ 50:13–17

    Google Scholar 

  • Bella G (2018) Estimating the tourism induced environmental Kuznets curve in France. J Sustain Tour 26:2043–2052

    Google Scholar 

  • Berrittella M, Bigano A, Roson R, Tol RS (2006) A general equilibrium analysis of climate change impacts on tourism. Tour Manag 27:913–924

    Google Scholar 

  • Bilgili F, Kocak E, Bulut U (2016) The dynamic impact of renewable energy consumption on CO2 emissions: a revisited environmental Kuznets curve approach. Renew Sust Energ Rev 54:838–845

    Google Scholar 

  • Blazquez J, Fuentes-Bracamontes R, Bollino CA, Nezamuddin N (2018) The renewable energy policy paradox. Renew Sust Energ Rev 82:1–5

    Google Scholar 

  • Boley BB (2015) To travel or not to travel? Both have implications for sustainable tourism. Tour Plan Dev 12:208–224

    Google Scholar 

  • Breusch TS, Pagan AR (1980) The Lagrange multiplier test and its applications to model specification in econometrics. Rev Econ Stud 47:239–253

    Google Scholar 

  • Bulut U (2019) Testing environmental Kuznets curve for the USA under a regime shift: the role of renewable energy. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26:14562–14569

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bulut U, Muratoglu G (2018) Renewable energy in Turkey: great potential, low but increasing utilization, and an empirical analysis on renewable energy-growth nexus. Energy Policy 123:240–250

    Google Scholar 

  • Chiu CL, Chang TH (2009) What proportion of renewable energy supplies is needed to initially mitigate CO2 emissions in OECD member countries? Renew Sust Energ Rev 13:1669–1674

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Danish, Wang Z (2018) Dynamic relationship between tourism, economic growth, and environmental quality. J Sustain Tour 26:1928–1943

    Google Scholar 

  • De Vita G, Katircioglu S, Altinay L, Fethi S, Mercan M (2015) Revisiting the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in a tourism development context. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22:16652–16663

    Google Scholar 

  • Dogru T, Bulut U, Sirakaya–Turk E (2016) Theory of vulnerability and remarkable resilience of tourism demand to climate change: Evidence from the Mediterranean Basin. Tour Anal 21:645–660

  • Dogru T, Bulut U (2018) Is tourism an engine for economic recovery? Theory and empirical evidence. Tour Manag 67:425–434

    Google Scholar 

  • Dogru T, Marchio EA, Bulut U, Suess C (2019) Climate change: vulnerability and resilience of tourism and the entire economy. Tour Manag 72:292–305

    Google Scholar 

  • Dong K, Sun R, Li H, Liao H (2018) Does natural gas consumption mitigate CO2 emissions: testing the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis for 14 Asia-Pacific countries. Renew Sust Energ Rev 94:419–429

    Google Scholar 

  • Eberhardt M, Bond S (2009) Cross-section dependence in nonstationary panel models: a novel estimator. MPRA Pap 17692

  • Esteve V, Tamarit C (2012) Threshold cointegration and nonlinear adjustment between CO2 and income: the environmental Kuznets curve in Spain, 1857–2007. Energy Econ 34:2148–2156

    Google Scholar 

  • Fodha M, Zaghdoud O (2010) Economic growth and pollutant emissions in Tunisia: an empirical analysis of the environmental Kuznets curve. Energy Policy 38:1150–1156

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Folke C, Carpenter S, Elmqvist T, Gunderson L, Holling CS, Walker B (2002) Resilience and sustainable development: building adaptive capacity in a world of transformations. AMBIO J Hum Environ 31:437–440

    Google Scholar 

  • Gamage SKN, Kuruppuge RH, Haq IU (2017) Energy consumption, tourism development, and environmental degradation in Sri Lanka. Energy Sources B Econ Plan Policy 12:910–916

    Google Scholar 

  • Gill AR, Viswanathan KK, Hassan S (2018) A test of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) for carbon emission and potential of renewable energy to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) in Malaysia. Environ Dev Sustain 20:1103–1114

    Google Scholar 

  • Gössling S, Scott D, Hall CM, Ceron JP, Dubois G (2012) Consumer behaviour and demand response of tourists to climate change. Ann Tour Res 39:36–58

    Google Scholar 

  • Granger CW (2003) Some aspects of causal relationships. J Econom 112:69–71

    Google Scholar 

  • Grossman GM, Krueger AB (1991) Environmental impacts of a North American free trade agreement. NBER Work Pap 3914

  • Grossman GM, Krueger AB (1995) Economic growth and the environment. Quart J Econ 110:353–377

    Google Scholar 

  • Halicioglu F (2009) An econometric study of CO2 emissions, energy consumption, income and foreign trade in Turkey. Energy Policy 37:1156–1164

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall CM, Amelun B, Cohen S et al (2015) Denying bogus skepticism in climate change and tourism research. Tour Manag 47:352–356

    Google Scholar 

  • Hernandez AB, Ryan G (2011) Coping with climate change in the tourism industry: a review and agenda for future research. Tour Hosp Manag 17:79–90

  • Isik C, Kasımatı E, Ongan S (2017) Analyzing the causalities between economic growth, financial development, international trade, tourism expenditure and/on the CO2 emissions in Greece. Energy Sources B Econ Plan Policy 12:665–673

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Isik C, Ongan S, Ozdemir D (2019) Testing the EKC hypothesis for ten US states: an application of heterogeneous panel estimation method. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26:10846–10853

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Iwata H, Okada K, Samreth S (2010) Empirical study on the environmental Kuznets curve for CO2 in France: the role of nuclear energy. Energy Policy 38:4057–4063

    Google Scholar 

  • Jebli MB, Hadhri W (2018) The dynamic causal links between CO2 emissions from transport, real GDP, energy use and international tourism. Int J Sustain Dev World Ecol 25:568–577

    Google Scholar 

  • Jebli MB, Youssef SB (2015) The environmental Kuznets curve, economic growth, renewable and non-renewable energy, and trade in Tunisia. Renew Sust Energ Rev 47:173–185

    Google Scholar 

  • Jebli MB, Youssef SB, Ozturk I (2016) Testing environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis: the role of renewable and non-renewable energy consumption and trade in OECD countries. Ecol Indic 60:824–831

    Google Scholar 

  • Jenkins K, Nicholls S (2010) The impacts of climate variability and potential climate change on tourism business in Torbay, England and implications for adaptation. Tour Anal 15:17–30

  • Kocak E, Sarkgunesi A (2018) The impact of foreign direct investment on CO2 emissions in Turkey: new evidence from cointegration and bootstrap causality analysis. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25:790–804

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kuznets S (1955) Economic growth and income inequality. Am Econ Rev 45:1–28

    Google Scholar 

  • Lau LS, Choong CK, Eng YK (2014) Investigation of the environmental Kuznets curve for carbon emissions in Malaysia: do foreign direct investment and trade matter? Energy Policy 68:490–497

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee JW, Brahmasrene T (2013) Investigating the influence of tourism on economic growth and carbon emissions: evidence from panel analysis of the European Union. Tour Manag 38:69–76

    Google Scholar 

  • Lenzen M, Sun YY, Faturay F, Ting YP, Geschke A, Malik A (2018) The carbon footprint of global tourism. Nat Clim Chang 8:522–528

    Google Scholar 

  • Neuvonen M, Sievänen T, Fronzek S, Lahtinen I, Veijalainen N, Carter TR (2015) Vulnerability of cross-country skiing to climate change in Finland–An interactive mapping tool. J Outdoor Recreat Tour 11:64–79

  • Nicholls RJ (2004) Coastal flooding and wetland loss in the 21st century: changes under the SRES climate and socio-economic scenarios. Glob Environ Chang 14:69–86

  • Pal D, Mitra SK (2017) The environmental Kuznets curve for carbon dioxide in India and China: growth and pollution at crossroad. J Policy Model 39:371–385

    Google Scholar 

  • Panayotou T (1993) Empirical tests and policy analysis of environmental degradation at different stages of economic development. ILO Work Pap WP238

  • Pao HT, Tsai CM (2010) CO2 emissions, energy consumption and economic growth in BRIC countries. Energy Policy 38:7850–7860

    Google Scholar 

  • Paramati SR, Alam MS, Chen CF (2017a) The effects of tourism on economic growth and CO2 emissions: a comparison between developed and developing economies. J Travel Res 56:712–724

    Google Scholar 

  • Paramati SR, Shahbaz M, Alam MS (2017b) Does tourism degrade environmental quality? A comparative study of Eastern and Western European Union. Transp Res D Transp Environ 50:1–13

    Google Scholar 

  • Paramati SR, Alam MS, Lau CKM (2018) The effect of tourism investment on tourism development and CO2 emissions: empirical evidence from the EU nations. J Sustain Tour 26:1587–1607

    Google Scholar 

  • Perman R, Stern DI (2003) Evidence from panel unit root and cointegration tests that the environmental Kuznets curve does not exist. Aust J Agric Resour Econ 47:325–347

    Google Scholar 

  • Pesaran MH (2004) General diagnostic tests for cross section dependence in panels. CESifo Work Pap 1240

  • Pesaran MH (2006) Estimation and inference in large heterogeneous panels with a multifactor error structure. Econom 74:967–1012

    Google Scholar 

  • Pesaran MH (2007) A simple panel unit root test in the presence of cross-section dependence. J Appl Econ 22:265–312

    Google Scholar 

  • Pesaran MH, Yamagata T (2008) Testing slope homogeneity in large panels. J Econ 142:50–93

    Google Scholar 

  • Pesaran MH, Ullah A, Yamagata T (2008) A bias-adjusted LM test of error cross-section independence. Econ J 11(1):105–127

    Google Scholar 

  • Sghaier A, Guizani A, Ben Jabeur S, Nurunnabi M (2018) Tourism development, energy consumption and environmental quality in Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco: a trivariate analysis. GeoJournal 84:593–609

    Google Scholar 

  • Shafiei S, Salim RA (2014) Non-renewable and renewable energy consumption and CO2 emissions in OECD countries: a comparative analysis. Energy Policy 66:547–556

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Shahbaz M, Tiwari AK, Nasir M (2013) The effects of financial development, economic growth, coal consumption and trade openness on CO2 emissions in South Africa. Energy Policy 61:1452–1459

    Google Scholar 

  • Shakouri B, Khoshnevis Yazdi S, Ghorchebigi E (2017) Does tourism development promote CO2 emissions? Anatolia 28:444–452

    Google Scholar 

  • Sharif A, Afshan S, Nisha N (2017) Impact of tourism on CO2 emission: evidence from Pakistan. Asia Pac J Tour Res 22:408–421

    Google Scholar 

  • Solarin SA (2014) Tourist arrivals and macroeconomic determinants of CO2 emissions in Malaysia. Anatolia 25:228–241

    Google Scholar 

  • Stern DI (2004) The rise and fall of the environmental Kuznets curve. World Dev 32:1419–1439

    Google Scholar 

  • Stern DI, Common MS (2001) Is there an environmental Kuznets curve for sulfur? J Environ Econ Manag 41:162–178

    Google Scholar 

  • Suri V, Chapman D (1998) Economic growth, trade and energy: implications for the environmental Kuznets curve. Ecol Econ 25:195–208

    Google Scholar 

  • Tao S, Zheng T, Lianjun T (2008) An empirical test of the environmental Kuznets curve in China: a panel cointegration approach. China Econ Rev 19:381–392

    Google Scholar 

  • Tiwari AK, Shahbaz M, Hye QMA (2013) The environmental Kuznets curve and the role of coal consumption in India: cointegration and causality analysis in an open economy. Renew Sust Energ Rev 18:519–527

    Google Scholar 

  • Torras M, Boyce JK (1998) Income, inequality, and pollution: a reassessment of the environmental Kuznets curve. Ecol Econ 25:147–160

    Google Scholar 

  • Tyrrell T, Paris CM, Biaett V (2013) A quantified triple bottom line for tourism: experimental results. J Travel Res 52:279–293

    Google Scholar 

  • Ulucak R, Bilgili F (2018) A reinvestigation of EKC model by ecological footprint measurement for high, middle and low income countries. J Clean Prod 188:144–157

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang SS, Zhou DQ, Zhou P, Wang QW (2011) CO2 emissions, energy consumption and economic growth in China: a panel data analysis. Energy Policy 39:4870–4875

    Google Scholar 

  • Westerlund J, Edgerton DL (2007) A panel bootstrap cointegration test. Econ Lett 97:185–190

    Google Scholar 

  • World Bank (2020) World Bank Open Data. https://data.worldbank.org/. Accessed 1 July 2020

  • WTTC (2020). The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) represents the Travel & Tourism sector globally. https://wttc.org/. Accessed 4 June 2020

  • Zaman K, Shahbaz M, Loganathan N, Raza SA (2016) Tourism development, energy consumption and environmental Kuznets curve: Trivariate analysis in the panel of developed and developing countries. Tour Manag 54:275–283

    Google Scholar 

  • Zaman K, Moemen MAE, Islam T (2017) Dynamic linkages between tourism transportation expenditures, carbon dioxide emission, energy consumption and growth factors: evidence from the transition economies. Curr Issues Tour 20:1720–1735

    Google Scholar 

  • Zambrano-Monserrate MA, Silva-Zambrano CA, Davalos-Penafiel JL, Zambrano-Monserrate A, Ruano MA (2018) Testing environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in Peru: the role of renewable electricity, petroleum and dry natural gas. Renew Sust Energ Rev 82:4170–4178

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang L, Gao J (2016) Exploring the effects of international tourism on China's economic growth, energy consumption and environmental pollution: evidence from a regional panel analysis. Renew Sust Energ Rev 53:225–234

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang B, Wang B, Wang Z (2017) Role of renewable energy and non-renewable energy consumption on EKC: evidence from Pakistan. J Clean Prod 156:855–864

    Google Scholar 

  • Zoundi Z (2017) CO2 emissions, renewable energy and the environmental Kuznets curve, a panel cointegration approach. Renew Sust Energ Rev 72:1067–1075

    CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Umit Bulut.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Responsible Editor: Nicholas Apergis

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Dogru, T., Bulut, U., Kocak, E. et al. The nexus between tourism, economic growth, renewable energy consumption, and carbon dioxide emissions: contemporary evidence from OECD countries. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 40930–40948 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-10110-w

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-10110-w

Keywords

Navigation