Environmental Kuznets curve under noncarbohydrate energy

Abstract

This study aims to examine the use of noncarbohydrate energy on carbon emissions under the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis in 27 OECD countries. Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds test results indicate that carbon emissions, gross domestic product per capita (GDP), primary energy consumption per capita and alternative and nuclear (noncarbohydrate) energy consumption are cointegrated in Canada, Chile, Denmark, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Korea Republic, New Zealand and Sweden. Results also show that the estimated long run elasticities of carbon emission with respect to (i) primary energy consumption per capita is positive in all countries, except Chile; (ii) noncarbohydrate energy consumption is negative for Canada, Chile, France, Italy, New Zealand and Sweden. Results also confirm the validity of EKC hypothesis in Denmark, France, Israel and Korea Republic. The absolute values of primary and noncarbohydrate energy consumption elasticities suggest that decreasing primary energy consumption is at least as important as increasing noncarbohydrate energy consumption to achieve carbon mitigation at significant levels. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.