Do Environmental Stringency Policies and Human Development Reduce CO2 Emissions? Evidence from G7 and BRICS Economies

Abstract

This study explores the impact of environmental policies and human development on the CO2 emissions for the period of 1995–2015 in the Group of Seven and BRICS economies in the long run through panel cointegration and causality tests. The causality analysis revealed a bilateral causality between environmental stringency policies and CO2 emissions for Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, and a unilateral causality from CO2 emissions to the environmental stringency policies for Canada, China, and France. On the other hand, the analysis showed a bilateral causality between human development and CO2 emissions for Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, and unilateral causality from CO2 emissions to human development in Brazil, Canada, China, and France. Furthermore, the cointegration analysis indicated that both environmental stringency policies and human development had a decreasing impact on the CO2 emissions.

Revealing the effectiveness of environmental policy stringency and environmental law on environmental performance: does asymmetry matter?

“…Our findings are supported by Wolde-Rufael and Mulat-Weldemeskel ( 2021 ), who reported that environmental policy stringency brings a reduction in CO 2 emissions. Ahmed ( 2020 ) and Sezgin et al ( 2021 ) reported a similar association between environmental policy stringency and CO 2 emissions. Strict environmental-related policies and regulations mainly focused on clean energy, environmental tax, and environmental proficiency policies.…”

The Impact of Green Technology Innovation on Carbon Emissions in the Context of Carbon Neutrality in China: Evidence from Spatial Spillover and Nonlinear Effect Analysis

“…As global climate change intensifies, environmental issues, together with food security, education, health, poverty, etc., have become the most pressing issues in the world [ 27 , 28 ]. An important factor leading to climate change is the emission of greenhouse gases [ 8 , 29 ], and carbon dioxide is a major component of greenhouse gases, so current concerns about carbon emissions has become a hot topic of scholars [ 28 , 30 , 31 , 32 ]. As the world’s largest carbon dioxide emitter [ 10 , 12 ], China contributed an average of 63.9% of the increase in global emissions from 2006 to 2016 [ 12 ].…”

“…As a responsible major country, China proposed that it should reach the peak of CDE by 2030 and achieve the strategic goal of carbon neutrality by 2060 [ 33 ]. Nowadays, accelerating GTI and transforming the economic development mode have become an important means to achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, and therefore, achieve sustainable economic development [ 16 , 28 ]. It should be noted that managing to hold carbon emission peak and carbon neutrality does not blindly pursue energy conservation and carbon reduction.…”

Does Degree of Stringency Matter? Revisiting the Pollution Haven Hypothesis in BRICS Countries

“…However, in the case of G7 and BRICS, environmental stringency policy and carbon dioxide emissions have bidirectional causality in Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. On the other hand, one-way causality between environmental stringency policy and carbon dioxide emissions is found in China, Canada, and France (Sezgin et al, 2021). Kim and Lin (2022) examined the environmental stringency policy in OECD economies.…”

“…Mikayilov et al ( 2019) analyzed the long-term effects of tourism and its development on ecological footprint using a time-varying coefficient cointegration approach, revealing a positive correlation between tourism and environmental footprint. Consequently, environmental issues such as pollution, waste, and depletion of natural resources contribute to economic crises (Sezgin et al, 2021). Carbon emissions have been found to have a long-term positive effect on tourist arrivals.…”