Effects of Economic Growth on CO2 Emissions in the 'Congo Basin' Countries

This study examines the effects of economic growth on the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of a sample of four countries of the Congo Basin. Cointegration tests by the distributed lags or AutoRegressive Distributed Lags (ARDL) developed by Pesaran et al. (1997, 2001) is applied to data on Cameroon, Congo, Gabon and the Democratic Republic of Congo for the period from 1978 to 2012 and indicates the existence of a long term relationship between the variables. The results show that the economic growth has a positive impact on CO2 emissions in these countries. Also, the consumption of energy, population density and industrial activities increase CO2 emissions significantly in these countries, while the commercial opening does not have a significant impact.