Συσχέτιση Των Εκπομπών Θερμοκηπίου Και Της Ενεργειακής Κατανάλωσης Με Την Οικονομική, Κλιματική Και Γεωγραφική Δομή Κάθε Χώρας

Abstract

Climate change is today one of the greatest challenges of the global community. Further economic growth is often advocated as a solution to any problem of environmental degradation, after an intermediate phase of higher environmental degradation, because of the previous steps of the economic growth. This proposal is embodied in the so-called Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis, which is based on the original Kutznets thesis concerning income inequality issues. The EKC hypothesis has been tested on various forms of pollution, but the results remain today rather inconclusive. What is more, the EKC hypothesis seems to be rejected when it comes to CO 2 emissions, which are considered as a global indicator of environmental degradation. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship among a country's economic structure, its energy consumption and its CO 2 emissions, using appropriate econometric tools. In addition, the specific relationships among the variables of per capita electricity consumption, per capita CO 2 emissions and per capita final consumption expenditure, when an exogenous explanatory variable representing climatic and geographical features enters the system as an exogenous explanatory variable are investigated. The obtained results show that the hypothesis that countries follow a common pattern over time is rejected. The CO 2 emissions per capita do not depend unilaterally on changes in per capita income. Contrary, the changes in per capita CO 2 emissions depend on the direction of changes in both the variables of per capita energy use and per capita income. In addition, there is a significant influence of climatic and geographic parameters on per capita energy use and on per capita CO 2 emissions produced in each country. v vi