Global Disparities of Greenhouse Gases Emission in Agriculture Sector: Panel Club Convergence Analysis

Abstract

A lot has been discussed about the greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions in the existing studies, the study on the club convergence of GHGs emissions is limited particularly for the agriculture sector. This study tries to investigate the convergence hypothesis across 93 countries spanning 1980–2017. To examine the convergence hypothesis, we implement the novel Phillips and Sul test. Results obtained from this test show the evidence of divergence when we consider all 93 countries as a group. This implies that GHGs across the countries are following different convergence paths. To capture this, we further apply clustering algorithms and results show the existence of five clubs of convergence and one group stating the need for altered the polices at the club level to achieve a single steady-state in GHGs emission. Moreover, our findings recommend that the mitigation policies would be considered the presence of different clubs of regions with different convergence paths in terms of GHGs emissions and account for the distributional effect of transfers across countries.