GHG Emissions and Economic Growth in the European Union, Norway, and Iceland: A Validated Time-Series Approach Based on a Small Number of Observations

Abstract

This research aims to ensure methodological conformance and to test the validity of its empirical application. To do so, the study analysed differentiation of the development patterns of four time-series variables. The relationships between greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, employment, inflation, and gross domestic product (GDP) at constant prices were analysed, comparing the European Union (EU-27) and two European Free Trade Association countries. The study period covers twelve years of monthly and quarterly data from the beginning of 2010 to mid-2021, where the highest frequency of data was 138 observations. The methodology used included unit root testing and the vector autoregressive model (VAR). The study’s main results show that GDP at constant prices significantly affected GHG emissions in the EU-27 countries. Meanwhile, the lag between inflation and employment did not have a considerable impact. This finding shows that inflation was not a stable variable and had a strong autocorrelation. Variable employment did not follow a normal distribution. It was necessary for this research to adopt a suitable model for the technical procedure.

An Empirical Analysis of Relationships between Forest Resources and Economic and Green Performances in the European Union

“…The investigation of the H2 hypothesis explores the possibility of clustering EU member countries into homogeneous groups based on key features, like forest area, economic performance, green performance, and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). The cluster analysis results confirm this hypothesis by identifying distinct groups of countries with similar characteristics in these domains, consistent with the findings of other researchers [3,5,42,49]. Cluster A comprises countries with high forest coverage (60.50%).…”

“…Forests are crucial in carbon sequestration, maintaining balance in the global carbon cycle [49,51]. Adequate afforestation and reforestation efforts can counterbalance the loss of natural forests and contribute to increased biodiversity and the protection of species' natural habitats.…”

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Effects of Energy Economic Variables on the Economic Growth of the European Union (2010–2019)

“…A study by [46] examined the impact of various macroeconomic variables on the economic growth of the 27 member states. The study's preliminary results show that G.D.P.…”

Carbon Tax and Tourism Employment: Is There An Interplay?

“…The results showed that carbon intensity target shocks had a negative impact on the tourism aggregate economy, while the reduction in carbon intensity target offset the positive effects of productivity shocks and increased the negative carbon impacts. Furthermore, different carbon intensity targets produce various volatilities and the persistence of exogenous shocks (e.g., Gricar et al 2022).…”