Search

The main purpose of this study is to examine the interaction between economic growth and the environment. To this end, Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis has been tested in Turkey for 1960- 2011 period. The National Income Per Capita as an indicator of economic growth, Per Capita Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions as an indicator of environmental pollution has been used. Also trade openess rate has been included in the model as a control variable. The results which obtained by ARDL (The Autoregressive Distributed Lag) model can be listed as follows: i) According to the long-term coefficients which obtained for quadratic model; there is an inverted U shaped relationship between per capita income and environmental pollution. These results support validity of EKC hypothesis for 1960-2011 in Turkey. ii) According to the longterm coefficients which obtained for cubic model; there is an N shaped relationship between per capita income and environmental pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the acceleration of economic changes in Sub-Saharan Africa economies (SSA), a better understanding of the relationship between economic growth and pollution is essential for policy makers. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of economic, financial and institutional developments on CO 2 emissions for 25 SSA countries over the period 1996–2010. We use the reduced form modeling to control unobserved heterogeneity specific to countries and the GMM dynamic panel method to control endogeneity. We found no -evidence in our investigation for the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. Indeed, a monotonically increasing relationship with GDP is found more appropriate for CO 2 emissions. The results confirm that political stability, government effectiveness, democracy, and control of corruption influence negatively CO 2 emissions. On the contrary, regulatory quality and rule of law have a positive effect on CO 2 emissions. The results confirm the importance of institutional frameworks in reducing carbon dioxide emissions since institutional quality not only affects carbon dioxide emissions directly, but also indirectly via economic growth and trade openness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis for the period between 1977 and 2013 by using the sub-elements of carbon (CO) emissions in China. To this end, the fully modified ordinary least squares and pairwise Granger causality methodologies have been employed. As a result, it is found that financial development leads to an improvement in environmental performance in China for many kinds of pollution, including the following: liquid fuel pollution, solid fuel pollution, residential buildings and commercial and public services pollution, and electricity and heat production pollution. The findings indicate that an increase in per capita consumption of energy will lead to an increase in eight different sub-elements of the carbon emissions. The highest impact is for per capita CO emissions and the lowest impact is for liquid fuel CO emissions. The findings also suggest that the EKC hypothesis is valid for CO emissions from gaseous fuel consumption, liquid fuel consumption, solid fuel consumption and transportation. However, the EKC hypothesis is not valid for aggregate CO emissions, CO emissions from residential buildings and commercial and public services, from electricity and heat production and from manufacturing industries and construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates how different technological and socioeconomic drivers have impacted the carbon footprint of primary metals. It analyzes the historical evidence from 1995 to 2018 using new metal production, energy use, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission extensions made for the multiregional input-output model EXIOBASE. A combination of established input-output methods (index decomposition analysis, hypothetical extraction method, and footprint analysis) is used to dissect the drivers of the change in the upstream emissions occurring due to the production of metals demanded by other (downstream) economic activities. On a global level, GHG emissions from metal production have increased at a similar pace as the GDP but have decreased in high-income countries in the most recent 6 year period studied. This absolute decoupling in industrialized countries is mainly driven by reduced metal consumption intensity and improved energy efficiency. However, in emerging economies increasing metal consumption intensity and affluency have driven up emissions, more than offsetting any reductions due to improved energy efficiency.

The aim of this paper is to examine the causal relationship between CO emissions, real GDP, energy consumption, financial development, trade openness, and urbanization in Tunisia over the period of 1971-2012. The long-run relationship is investigated by the auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to cointegration and error correction method (ECM). The results of the analysis reveal a positive sign for the coefficient of financial development, suggesting that the financial development in Tunisia has taken place at the expense of environmental pollution. The Tunisian case also shows a positive monotonic relationship between real GDP and CO emissions. This means that the results do not support the validity of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. In addition, the paper explores causal relationship between the variables by using Granger causality models and it concludes that financial development plays a vital role in the Tunisian economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With rapid socio-economic development over the past three decades in China, adverse effects of human activities on the natural ecosystem are particularly serious in arid regions where landscape ecology is fragile due to limited water resources and considerable interannual climate variability. Data on land use, surface and ground water, climate, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita from the middle Heihe River Basin were used to (i) examine changes in water consumption, land use composition, and vegetation cover; (ii) evaluate the effectiveness of short-term management strategies for environmental protection and improvement, and (iii) apply and extend the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) framework to describe the relationship between economic development and environmental quality in terms of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). The results showed that with rapid development of agriculture and economy, land use change for the period 1986–2000 was characterized by the expansion of constructed oases, considerable contraction of oasis-desert transitional zone and natural oases. This has led to a decrease in ecosystem stability. Since 2001, effective basin management has brought about improved environment conditions, with a more optimal hierarchical structure of vegetation cover. The original EKC model could not explain most of the observed variation in NDVI ( R 2 = 0.37). Including additional climate variables, the extended EKC model to explain the observed NDVI was much improved ( R 2 = 0.78), suggesting that inclusion of biophysical factors is a necessary additional dimension in the relationship between economic development and environmental quality for arid regions with great climate variability. The relationship between GDP per capita and NDVI, with the effect of precipitation and temperature taken into consideration, was adequately described by an N-shaped curve, suggesting that the relationship between society and the environment followed a process of promotion, contradiction, and coordination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to analyse the position of Slovakia and the Czech Republic in the European Union from the viewpoint of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. Econometric models for panel data with C02 emissions as the dependent variable and four different types of macroeconomic aggregates are employed in the study. The EU-27 data used in the study supports the hypothesis of the EKC. As the EU countries are heterogeneous, the countries are further classified into "rich" and "poor" (according to the level of their GDP), and further analyses are performed. Considering the "rich" EU countries the EKC hypothesis holds, but if the "poor" EU countries are taken into account, the coefficient of the quadratic regressor is positive which relates to the traditional U-shaped curve, not the inverted one. Such a finding is still not in contradiction to the EKC hypothesis, as it assumes that at the low level of economic output, as the development progresses, the emissions increase. The estimated value of the EKC turning point is 19 660 USD (constant 2000 USD) which has not been reached by the "poor" EU countries yet. As for the position of Slovakia and the Czech Republic in the EU, the results are not unambiguous. The C02 emissions have been decreasing very slightly in both countries since 1992 (with 1.33 percent mean annual rate of decrease in Slovakia and 1.16 percent mean annual rate of decrease in the Czech Republic). The GDP per unit of energy use (constant 2005 PPP USD per kg of oil equivalent) increased from 3.15 USD to 6.33 USD in Slovakia between 1990 and 2010 (i.e. 3.54 percent mean annual growth rate). The mean annual growth rate of the Czech GDP per unit of energy use was slightly slower: 2.71 percent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the existence of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and its relationship with economic growth, energy consumption and globalization over the period of 1990-2010. We apply a dynamic panel data (GMM-system estimator) using the data of selected 18 countries. This estimator permits to solve the problems of serial correlation, heteroskedasticity and endogeneity for some explanatory variables. The environmental consequences of economic growth are according to environmental Kuznets (EKC) hypothesis. Globalization seems to be a main engine that provides a way to enhance production intensively by utilizing abundant domestic resources efficiently. The energy consumption has positive impact on CO2 emissions. Urbanization improves environmental quality by lowering CO2 emissions, i.e an inverted-U shaped relationship between urbanization and CO2 emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, which is conceptually located at the intersection of trade–economics, resource politics, and environmental assessment, is a narrative-analytic review of Chinese economic expansionism in Africa especially its quest for the continent’s natural resources in the past 10 years. We seek to examine the environmental, ecological, and sociopolitical impacts of the current China–Africa engagement within the context of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. The EKC hypothesis posits that an inverted U-shape relationship exists between economic growth and environmental quality. This implies that the quality of a country’s environment will initially decrease due to its economic growth, but will soon start to improve when the country attains a certain threshold level of economic development/income per capita. We argue that by virtue of its ‘omission’ and/or ‘commission’ factors, the EKC hypothesis can be misleading if not dangerous. Using the case study of China’s engagement with Cameroon in the forest sector, the paper illustrates the high threshold level of economic development/income per capita that is required before the quality of the country’s environment can begin to improve. The paper ends with the environmental, ecological, and sociopolitical impacts of Chinese involvement in the Cameroonian forest sector and concludes that this engagement and the larger Chinese economic expansionism in Africa under current trading conditions is fairly detrimental to the welfare of African peoples and their environment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: In this study, the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) is hypothesized to investigate the relationship between CO2 emission, economic growth, energy consumption, trade liberalization and population density in Pakistan with yearly data from 1971 to 2008. The cointegration analysis using Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach is incorporated. The results support the hypothesis both in short-run and long-run and inverted U-shaped relationship is found between CO2 emission and growth. Interestingly we found trade support the environment positively and population contributes to environmental degradation in Pakistan. The energy consumption and growth are the major explanatory variables which contribute to environmental pollution in Pakistan. Moreover, the time series data analysis is used and the stability of variables in estimated model is also assessed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The goal of the article is an introduction of Environmental Kuznets Curve as a concept, discu-ssion of its existence arising from empirical research for different pollutants and its theoretical explanation. The article includes own EKC research result concerning particulate matter in the air. Economic growth, measured as GDP per capita in a given country, is connected with increasing pollution, but after some turning point pollution starts declining. This relationship has an inverted U-shape and is called Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). EKC was first identified in a research by Grossman and Krueger from 1991 [8], other studies came after soon. In the air pollution EKC was identified for SO2, NOx a dark matter (smoke), in water pollution for biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, nitrates and some heavy metals (such as arsenic, cadmium or lead). EKC evidence for particulate matter (PM) is mixed, EKC wasn t found for CO or CO2 However, some authors consider evidence for EKC statistically weak. Standard explanation of EKC comes from [17]: &ldqou;As the development and industrailization progress, environmental damage increases due to greater use of natural resources, more emissions of pollutants, the operation of less effici-ent and relatively dirty technologies, the high priority given to increase in material output, and di-sregard for - or ignorance of - the environmental consequences of growth. However, as economic growth continues and life expectancies increase, claner water, improved air quality, and a generally cleaner habitat become more valuable…" EKC research has important policy implications: from some point environmental quality impro-ves with ecomic growth. Hence efforts to reduce economic growth to protect environment have in fact the opposite effect… [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Release of CO2 has caused significant climate change, and agricultural land use consitutes an important carbon source as well as principal carbon sinks. This paper, by examining carbon functions of main agricultural land in China, shows that in 2000-2008 the annual growth rate of carbon emission for arable land amounted to 2.47 percent, the average annual growth of carbon sinks for forest reached 3.19 percent, and the diminishing rate of carbon sink for grassland turned to be small but quite distinct. For arable land, higher carbon emissions are mainly located in its central provinces and major agricultural provinces, while higher carbon intensity in its eastern coastal provinces. Agricultural land of 9 provinces in China was found with net carbon emissions, primarily in the agricultural provinces and ecologically fragile urban areas, whereas the other 22 provinces with net carbon sinks. The EKC tests between carbon intensity of agricultural land and agricultural output per capita illustrate a significant inverted Ucurve relationship; as for agricultural output per capita, the inflection point of 9,615 RMB yuan was surpassed by 11 provinces, mainly in eastern China, developed cities and the northeast region. Finally, policy recommendations are proposed to reduce carbon emissions of agricultural land use across China. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Regression analyses were conducted between water pollutants discharges per capita (PDC) and gross domestic production per capita (GDPC) of developing countries in seven international coastal and lakeside Regions. Regional groupings of PDCs and GDPC were identified with graphical analyses. The inverted-U shaped curve relationships, namely environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), were found for biological oxygen demand (BOD) discharge per capita (PDC-BOD) and total phosphorus (TP) discharge per capita (PDC-TP) with a peak at ca. US$5, 050 and US$11,200, respectively, besides lower significance for PDC-BOD. Total nitrogen (TN) discharge per capita (PDC-TN) decreased linearly with GDPC increase. Possible reasons for the different tendencies of PDC-BOD, PDC-TN and PDC-TP with GCP per capita are that nutrient removal is introduced after economic development to some extent, and main nitrogen source is blackwater especially urine in domestic wastewater. Pollutants discharges reduction should be targeted with the relevant indicators to improve the ambient water quality especially after the achievement of the sanitation millennium development goals (MDGs) because the sanitation MDGs indicator mainly targets infectious diseases, hygiene health and lifestyle improvement, and there are several kinds of domestic wastewater treatment methods in the world. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Based on the study of the relationships between economic growth and industrial pollutant discharge of Suzhou City in 1991-2005, the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) of the City was estimated by several kinds of function, with the cause analyzed. The results showed that the EKC of Suzhou was not a typical one. The industrial pollution of the City increased dramatically by scale effect of economic growth and the clear environmental benefit of industrial structure adjustment was not received obviously, while generalized discharge reduction technologies showed great results. In general terms, the pollution increase was comparatively slower than the GDP growth. As a whole, the environmental policy of Suzhou was in effect. However, the relationships between economic growth and industrial pollutant discharge had not been a benign development yet. In order to achieve win-win situation of economic growth and pollution reduction, Suzhou needed to optimize its industry structure, push the energy conservation and discharge reduction policy deeply, increase environmental investment, and enforce the strictest environmental and industrial policy. In doing these, Suzhou could turn the traditional ∩-shaped EKC into Λ-shaped EKC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relationship between absolute energy consumption and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita for 113 countries over the period 1971–2004. Energy has been scarcely explored in the Environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) debate and is taken as the indicator of overall environmental pressure. The following aspects of this work are rather innovative. Firstly, in order to closely adhere to the EKC narratives, the indicator of environmental pressure (energy) is taken in absolute terms rather than per capita. Secondly, we look for consistency both between different econometric techniques (parametric and semi-parametric) and across different analytical levels (world, time series/cross-countries, and single countries). Finally, the dataset is large and not limited to developed countries. In our opinion, the estimates cannot support an energy-EKC hypothesis. For the world as a single unit, the relationship is positive monotone, with a lower (though still positive) elasticity after 1989. A glance at single country level does not reveal evidence of EKC. Cross-country analysis is slightly more open to interpretation; in any case, however, it shows that the potential benefits of GDP growth on natural environment, if any, did not show up in the considered time span. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Water pollutant discharges per capita (PDCs) as indicators to evaluate quantitatively domestic wastewater pollutant discharges to the ambient water were applied to eight international coastal zones and lakeside regions. Statistical analyses were conducted to find the relationships between PDCs and water, sanitation and economic parameters including purchase power parity based gross national income (PPP-GNI) per capita, proportions of access to safe drinking water and appropriate sanitation, domestic water usage amount, and integrated parameters of water, sanitation and economic indicators (WSEI1, 2). Two of the important findings from the regression analyses results were PDC-BOD correlated with PPP-GNI per capita with 3rd-order regression, and PDC-TP correlated with WSEI1 positively with 10% significance, besides smaller adjusted regression coefficients. t-values of partial regression coefficients between PDC-TP and WSEI2 increased in the most analyses cases compared to those between PDC-TP and WSEI1, which showed improvement of the indices. Empirical estimations were also conducted based on the regression analyses results and distributions of PDCs and PPP-GNI per capita on the graphs. Six components generated by the principle component analysis (PCA) contributed 99% of the parameters. The first component represented access to sanitation, second one represented household connection of safe drinking water, third one represented areal equipment of water supply in urban area, fourth one represented domestic water usage amount, fifth one represented areal equipment of water supply, and sixth one represented income per capita and sanitation. Although some statistically significances of the multiple linear regression analysis were observed, the relationships between PDCs and the water supply parameters were considered as complicated in regards to areal equipment and household connection, and in whole country and in urban area. Possible chronological relationships between PDC-BOD and water supply equipment were considered based on the results of the multiple linear regression analyses and PCA. Based on the considerations of the water pollutant discharges and the economic related parameters relationships, domestic wastewater treatment facility deployments and improvements on pollutant discharges reduction for the water quality improvement in the receiving water bodies were recommended, which would lead the relationship curves between the water, sanitation and economic related indicators and PDCs to move downward. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In contrast to the common dismal view of China's environment, this article highlights local and national sustainability efforts in China and examines the location characteristics of China's Eco-Communities (Shengtai Qu), communities that achieved significant sustainability per the evaluation of the Chinese government. It explores what the Chinese experience implies to the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) concept in the context of nature-society relations and sustainability studies. The research was based on field research in eight Chinese provinces in 2001, 2004, and 2006, in addition to Chinese governmental and academic sources. At the national level, there appeared to be a positive environment-development relationship: The Eco-Communities tended to concentrate in more developed eastern China. The Eco-Communities displayed unique spatial patterns that are strikingly at odds with conventional wisdom, however. They were often found in the periphery of their provinces away from the wealthiest areas, poorer and smaller in economy and population compared to other communities in the provinces. Contrary to the EKC, the findings illustrate that communities can achieve environmental improvement along with economic growth, thus a win-win, nature-society relationship, at early stages of development. Natural resource endowments and environmental governance appear to be more important than development level in determining an area's sustainability. Environment-development research should move beyond the traditional EKC debate to better understand nature-society relations and sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the historical developments of the environmental adaptation process at one Swedish metal smelting firm, contrasting the result with cases in Canada. The findings suggest that the Swedish system in excluding stakeholders, focusing on plant emissions and stipulating pollution reduction at economically feasible costs mitigated risk which resulted in long-term contracts in a cooperative framework in which engineers were given a high degree of discretion. This enabled an 'expansion-for-emission-reduction' strategy which is consistent with the so-called Porter and van der Linde hypothesis. Moreover, the findings suggest that environmental management systems should be considered in the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The relationship between economic development and environmental quality is a debated topic. Environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) is one prominent hypothesis, positing an inverted U-shaped development–environment relationship. Here we test this hypothesis using data from Shenzhen, People''s Republic of China. Established in 1980 as the first special economic zone in China, Shenzhen has developed from a small village into a large urban-industrial agglomeration with the highest income level in the country. The enormous expansion of infrastructure, industrial sites and urban settlements has profoundly changed the local environment. We utilize environmental monitoring data from Shenzhen on concentration of pollutants in ambient air, main rivers, and near-shore waters from 1989 to 2003. The results show that production-induced pollutants support EKC while consumption-induced pollutants do not support it. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: As indices directly indicate land-based pollutant load contributions to public water pollution, pollutant load per capita flowing into the water body (PLCwb) for the drainage areas of inner city rivers in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, was analyzed. It was reaffirmed that PLCwb was different by the drainage area. For example, the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) load per capita flowing into the water body (PLCwb-BOD) was calculated as 0.83 g BOD person−1 day−1 for population served with wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). In regards to the three types of on-site domestic wastewater treatment methods in Japan: 0.4–2.1 g BOD person−1 day−1 for combined jokaso (CJ), 4.5–21 g BOD person−1 day−1 for simple jokaso (SJ) and 4.3–19 g BOD person−1 day−1 for night soil treatment (NST). In regards to nutrient parameters of the three on-site treatment methods, population weighted average of PLCwb were almost the same, however, relatively small PLCwb were observed for CJ and SJ through the analysis. Environmental accounting housekeeping (EAH) books for domestic wastewater were prepared based on the analysis results as the application of the indices. EAH books are effective tools for water pollution mitigation in public water bodies. The results of the preliminary correlation analysis of the indices showed that high-efficiency treatment methods including WWTP, agriculture village wastewater treatment facility (AVETF) and CJ are effective in reducing pollutant load flowing into the water body, and that PLCwb have second-order equation relationships with population density of the drainage area. Judging from these characteristics and the analytical results of this study, PLCwb may be useful as an index for demonstrating the benefit of wastewater treatment in reduction of water pollution in the water body. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article examines the question of how to interpret a relationship between income and carbon emissions in a country (the environmental kuznets curve [EKCI for carbon). A very simple and graphical structural model of an EKC is developed, and the problems of applying the concept to carbon are discussed. A major issue is the weak link between demand to avoid damage from climate change and regulations limiting greenhouse gas emissions at the country level. The article goes on to interpret three recent papers in this journal in the context of this structural model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At least three perspectives—industrial ecology (IE), ecological modernization theory (EMT), and the "environmental Kuznets curve" (EKC)—emphasize the potential for sustainability via refinements in production systems that dramatically reduce the environmental impacts of economic development. Can improvements in efficiency counterbalance environmental impacts stemming from the scale of production? To address this question we analyze cross-national variation in the ecological footprint (EF) per unit of gross domestic product (GDP). The EF is a widely recognized indicator of human pressure on the environment. The EF of a nation is the amount of land area that would be required to produce the resources it consumes and to absorb the wastes it generates. The most striking finding of our analyses is that there is limited variation across nations in EF per unit of GDP. This indicates limited plasticity in the levels of EF intensity or eco-efficiency among nations, particularly among affluent nations. EF intensity is lowest (ecoefficiency is highest) in affluent nations, but the level of efficiency in these nations does not appear to be of sufficient magnitude to compensate for their large productive capacities. These results suggest that modernization and economic development will be insufficient, in themselves, to bring about the ecological sustainability of societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accompanied with the increasing complicated global value chain (GVC) networks is the carbon emission transfers among countries. Utilizing the complex network analysis alongside quadratic assignment procedure (QAP), this paper detects the community structure and influencing forces of the emission transfers under GVCs. The results imply that the bipolar structure of the network transformed gradually to tripolar owing largely to the surging of carbon emissions from China. Evidence on the existence of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) in the emission transfers from high-income countries to low-income countries, and a U-shape relationship transfers in the reverse direction, suggesting that growing carbon emissions from both low- and high-income countries transferred to other high-income countries gradually. Gaps in technology, especially in patent applications, between source and destination countries played an important role therein., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Transportation and environmental degradation, with indirect and direct effects, play a significant role in determining the health of a nation's citizens. This study uses bootstrap ARDL with a Fourier function to examine transportation, environmental degradation, and health dynamics in the United States and China. In the long run, the results support the cointegration relationship between transportation, environmental degradation, and health in both countries. The results show the contingency of the causality where a negative impact of transportation on environmental degradation exists in the United States while a positive impact exists in China. The effect of environmental degradation on health is negative in the United States while a positive effect exists in China. Regarding the causal direction between the variables of interest, the implications provide policymakers in developing strategy and policy for sustainable development., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Lin and Wu.)

The aim of this study is to examine the impact of foreign direct investments, economic growth, and energy consumption on carbon dioxide subcomponents in the case of the USA. Dynamic ARDL (DARDL) econometric method is used covering the period 1972-2020. In addition to the total CO2 emission, the subcomponents of CO2 emission are examined separately within the framework of the EKC hypothesis in the USA by avoiding aggregation bias for the first time. The CO2 emission subcomponents used in the study are as follows; CO2 emissions from liquid fuel consumption, residential buildings, and commercial and public services; electricity and heat production; and other sectors, excluding residential buildings and commercial and public services, and CO2 emissions from transportation. Each CO2 emission component is used as a dependent variable and 6 different models were created. Foreign direct investments, trade, and energy consumption are used as control variables. No results supporting the EKC hypothesis are determined in any model, except for model 1, where total CO2 emission is the dependent variable. In addition, the trade variable has been determined as an important factor in reducing CO2 emissions in the short and long term. Trade and GDP per capita increasing and energy consumption reducing will show positive results in order to increase the environmental quality in the USA. Moreover, the study in which this EKC hypothesis is tested with CO2 emission and its subcomponents is an important study in terms of providing the opportunity to analyze the environmental quality from different angles at the same time and to take various measures together in the US economy., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

What kinds of countries are likely to be prosperous and have a sustainable environment at the same time? How might countries reorient their policy setting to be more capable of suppressing environmental degradation? To explore these questions, this research examines data from 99 countries for 2006-2017, takes the six major forms of ecological footprint (EF) as indicators of environmental quality, and probes the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis via quantile regression approach. We find that tourism development leads to greater environmental degradation, with tourism development particularly corresponding to more usage of carbon absorption land and cropland. The lower the country security is, the better is the environmental quality. Economic complexity also worsens environmental quality. However, country security weakens the negative influence of tourism development and economic complexity on environmental quality, specifying that better country security stalls the negative impact of tourism and economic complexity on environmental quality. Results mostly support the tourism- and country security-induced EKC hypotheses in fishing footprint, whereas economic complexity-induced EKC is generally validated in cropland footprint. Finally, we present that tourism arrivals, economic complexity, and country security have varying impacts across diverse ecological footprint quantiles., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Estuarine sediment quality is highly associated with anthropogenic activities in watersheds. This study attempts to couple socioeconomic patterns with estuarine sediment quality via legacy organochlorines in 14 Chinese coastal watersheds. Sedimentary concentrations of HCHs, DDTs, and PCBs showed a significant spatiality in estuary, up to 48.7 ± 15.1, 89.0 ± 46.4, and 54.5 ± 17.2 ng g -1 , which were predominated by β-HCH, p,p'-DTs, and tri- to penta-PCBs, respectively. Ecological risk of organochlorines was negligible except few moderate risks for DDTs and PCBs against the first class quality of the marine sediment quality guidelines of China. Sedimentary DDT and PCB concentrations were significantly delineated by an environmental Kuznets curve model as a function of non-agricultural GDP per capita in watersheds, while HCHs by an increasing linear model. Findings of this study provide a tool to quantify the contribution of anthropogenic development in watershed to environmental change in estuary across the world., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

• There are significant spillover effects of industrial and haze pollution in China. • The EKC for composite industrial, haze and industrial smog pollution is examined. • The heterogeneity of EKC exists among different pollutants, regions and cities. • 'PRT' 'Low-carbon city' and 'SO 2 emission trading' strike an environmental-economic balance effectively. Although an 'inverted U-shaped' economy-environment nexus is proposed in the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis, this initial configuration is considered to be too restrictive. Considering the diversified pollution, regional heterogeneity and strong government intervention in China, this article investigates EKC's heterogeneity in a panel of 290 cities from 2001 to 2018. Through the investigation of the lag effect and spatial spillover effect of pollution emissions, the heterogeneity of EKC is examined among different pollutants and different regions. Moreover, such heterogeneity pattern also exists between pilot cities and non-pilot cities of three environmental policies ('pollution rights trading (PRT)', 'low-carbon city' and 'SO 2 emission trading'). The results show that different curve shapes and turning points are associated with EKC heterogeneity. Three regulations are considered effective to strike a balance between urban emission reduction and long-term economic growth. Pollution rights' trading could contribute to the earlier 'decoupling' between urban pollution (both industrial pollution and haze pollution) and economic growth in the pilot cities significantly. The implementation of the 'low-carbon city' and 'SO 2 emission trading' are considered conducive to reducing the emissions of industrial SO 2 , with the former also resulting in fewer industrial smog emissions. The main contributions of this study are to identify both the temporal and spatial effects of pollution, develop the multidimensional analysis framework on the heterogeneity of EKC and investigate the dual effects of institutional power upon EKC as well as EKC heterogeneity. The implications, nevertheless, are considered as 1) the coordinated environment prevention and control between different regions and 2) the strict inspection of existing policy implementation by respecting each of their heterogeneous effects between regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the environmental degradation associated with the ecological footprint in Latin America. The studied region has an important feature of less industrialization and are having high advantage of biodiversity. As ecological footprint is a comprehensive indicator of environmental deterioration because it assesses the impact of all human activities on nature. This research examines the effect of economic complexity and the natural resources rents on the per capita ecological footprint in Latin America. To assess the sensitivity of the parameters and to capture the impact of the growth in the structure of the industrial sector for the region, the study includes globalization, inequality, internal credit and trade as additional covariates. The theoretical framework comprises the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) and for the methodology the quantile regression approach, proposed by Canay (2011), Powell (2016) and Machado and Santos Silva (2019), has been used in this study. The study found that the impact of economic complexity and the natural resources rents is heterogeneous throughout the distribution on the ecological footprint. It is also observed that the level of inequality for the utilization of region-specific climatic distribution of natural resources, increases the ecological footprint in the lower quantiles, while in the upper quantiles, it decreases the same. This study provides a new approach to analyze the degradation of environment in countries with high dependence on natural resources rents and high-income inequality. [Display omitted] • We examine the impact of economic complexity and natural resources on ecological footprint. • We use quantile regressions from Canay (2011) , Powell (2016) , and Machado and Santos Silva (2019). • Economic complexity has an asymmetric impact on the ecological footprint. • The natural resources rents has an asymmetric impact on the ecological footprint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]