Carbon curse in developed countries

Abstract

Among the ten countries with the highest carbon intensity, six are natural resource-rich countries. This suggests the existence of a carbon curse: resource-rich countries would tend to follow more carbonintensive development paths than resource-poor countries. We investigate this assumption empirically using a panel data method covering 29 countries (OECD and BRIC) and seven sectors over the 1995-2009 period. First, at the macroeconomic level, we find that the relationship between national CO2 emissions per unit of GDP and abundance in natural resources is U-shaped. The carbon curse appears only after the turning point. Second, we measure the impact of resource abundance on sectoral emissions for two groups of countries based on their resource endowments. We show that a country rich in natural resources pollutes relatively more in resource-related sectors as well as all other sectors. Our results suggest that the debate on climate change mitigation should rather focus on a comparison of resource-rich countries versus resource-poor countries than the developed-country versus developing-country debate.

Beyond the barrels: The impact of resource wealth on the energy-economy-climate targets in oil-rich economies

“…The testing of how economic dependence on natural resources shapes the CO 2 emissions mitigation model is a subject of recent empirical attention in the literature [ 15 , 17 , 20 , 23 , [32] , [33] , [34] ]. Indeed, few of these empirical attempts focused on the particular case of oil-rich economies or, more specifically, on the underlying mechanisms of the carbon curse theory.…”

“…The existing empirical literature on the carbon curse has made limited efforts to deepen our understanding of its underlying mechanisms. Many empirical tests have aggregated countries with varying degrees of resource dependence and different resource endowments [ 15 , 16 ]. Moreover, previous empirical literature has frequently focused on the broader objective of assessing the significance of natural resources in the context of carbon mitigation.…”

“…Such a potential threshold suggests that the carbon curse hypothesis may indeed exhibit nonlinearities in the relationship. For example, Chiroleu-Assouline et al [ 15 ] show evidence of a U-shaped relationship between carbon intensity and natural resource abundance for developed countries. For oil-rich countries, determining such a threshold point is pertinent and can be helpful for designing both environment and resource management policies that are consistent with current climate change targets.…”

The geopolitics of energy system transformation: A review

“…Moreover, producer economies themselves are typically high CO 2 emitters because fossil fuel consumption is embedded in their national energy systems. This ‘carbon curse’ makes it more difficult for them to transition to a low‐carbon economy (Chiroleu‐Assouline et al., 2020; Friedrichs & Inderwildi, 2013). Eventually, however, their international influence will wane unless they can reinvent their economies as the world transitions to the new energy order (IRENA, 2019a, pp.…”

Fossil fuels, climate change, and the COVID-19 crisis: pathways for a just and green post-pandemic recovery

“…While there should thus be some hope for a green recovery, assessments of COVID recovery stimulus plans suggest that many governments will be following a 'dirty' rather than a 'green' path out of the pandemic (Carbon Brief, 2020;IISD, 2020;VividEconomics, 2020). This trajectory is not surprising given the challenges for fossil fuel consuming countries to shift energy sources (Fouquet, 2016), and for fossil fuel-rich countries to escape the 'carbon curse' and transition out of carbon-intensive development paths (Chiroleu-Assouline et al, 2020).…”