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Does excessive energy utilization and expansion of urbanization increase carbon dioxide emission in Belt and Road economies?

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Abstract  

The phenomenal increase in global temperature and variation in climate change are the replications of nature, alarming governments to limit the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and adopt green innovation and environmental-friendly clean and green technologies. In this paper, we empirically investigate whether there are any changes in excessive consumption of energy from conventional sources, expansion of urbanization, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and economic growth in six different regions, namely, East Asia (EA), South Asia (SA), Southeast Asia (SEA), Central Asia (CA), Eastern Europe (EE), and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), under the Belt and Road Initiatives of panel data over the period of 1985 to 2017. The empirical methods include a panel co-integration check, heterogeneity test, panel Granger causality test, pooled mean group (PMG), and augmented mean group (AMG). To verify the outcomes, robustness tests were carried out using the fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) approaches. Our results confirm that CO2 emissions are primarily influenced by excessive utilization of conventional energy, economic growth, and expansion of urbanization. The findings confirm the co-integrating relationships among the variables in all six regions. Moreover, the panel causality analysis identified a bidirectional causal relationship between energy consumption, economic growth, urbanization, and CO2 emissions. While these results can play an instrumental role in formulating CO2 emission policies among our selected countries, our research can also assist policymakers and governments in other developing countries implement important policy initiatives. In this regard, the findings suggest that the current environment-related polices of Belt and Road Initiatives (BRI) do not efficiently tackle CO2 emissions. In order to achieve the CO2 emission degradation objective, the Belt and Road countries should restructure their environment-related policies by limiting the consumption of conventional energy and expansion of urbanization. The adaptation and establishment of such a panoramic policy program can assist emerging economies to acquire consolidated and environmentally sustainable economic growth.

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Data availability

The datasets analyzed for this study can be found in the World Bank Database; here is the website reference: https://databank.worldbank.org/reports.aspx?source=world-development-indicators

Notes

  1. EA (East Asia), SA (South Asia), SEA (Southeast Asia), CA (Central Asia), MENA (Middle East and North Africa), EE (Eastern Europe).

Abbreviations

EA:

East Asia

SA:

South Asia

SEA:

Southeast Asia

CA:

Central Asia

EE:

Eastern Europe

MENA:

Middle East and North Africa

CO2 :

Carbon dioxide emissions

GDP:

Gross domestic product

EG:

Economic growth

GHGs:

Greenhouse gases

EC:

Energy consumption

UR:

Urbanization

BRI:

Belt and Road Initiatives

OECD:

Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development

AMG:

Augmented mean group

PMG:

Pooled mean group

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Funding

This research was supported by the Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 2108085QG301), Anhui Provincial Social Science Innovation and Development Research Project of China (Grant No. 2020CX062), the 2022 Scientific research project of Anhui Polytechnic University (Grant No. XJKY2022133), and the 2021 Anhui provincial university science and research project (Grant No. SK2021A0290).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics and Management, Anhui Polytechnic University, Anhui, Wuhu, 241000, China

    Fang Liu, Yasir Khan & Taimoor Hassan

Authors
  1. Fang Liu
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  2. Yasir Khan
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  3. Taimoor Hassan
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Contributions

Fang Liu wrote the introduction, literature review, and data collection. The main idea of the original draft belongs to Yasir Khan. He designed the empirical analysis, methodology, revised the final draft software, data analysis and supervision, while Taimoor Hassan, review and editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yasir Khan.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Highlights

• Excessive consumption of conventional energy and expansion of urbanization lead to CO2 emissions in Belt and Road countries.

• Co-integration methods reveal the existence of a long-run relationship among the study variables.

• PMG and AMG estimations were employed to investigate the connection between CO2 emissions, EC, GDP, and UR.

• The level of CO2 emissions is connected with conventional energy consumption and urbanization.

Appendix

Appendix

SA

SEA

EA

CA

MENA

EE

Afghanistan

Indonesia

China

Tajikistan

Iraq

Poland

Pakistan

Malaysia

Mongolia

Uzbekistan

Iran

Lithuania

India

Brunei

 

Kyrgyzstan

Turkey

Estonia

Bangladesh

Myanmar

Turkmenistan

Syria

Latvia

Nepal

Vietnam

 

Kazakhstan

Jordan

Czech

Bhutan

Cambodia

Kyrgyzstan

Lebanon

Slovakia

Sri Lanka

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Hungary

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Thailand

  

Palestine

Slovenia

    

Saudi Arabia

Croatia

    

Yemen

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Oman

Montenegro

    

UAE

Serbia

    

Qatar

Albania

    

Kuwait

Romania

    

Bahrain

Bulgaria

    

Egypt

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Azerbaijan

     

Armenia

     

Moldova

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Liu, F., Khan, Y. & Hassan, T. Does excessive energy utilization and expansion of urbanization increase carbon dioxide emission in Belt and Road economies?. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 60080–60105 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-26701-2

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