Mohhamad reza lotfalipour; emad kazemzadeh
Abstract
Introduction One of the major and urgent challenges in the global dimension is energy supply for sustainable development, air pollution, and climate change due to the emission of pollutant gases from fossil fuels (e.g, coal, oil, and gas) for use in production. Various goods and services are produced ...
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Introduction One of the major and urgent challenges in the global dimension is energy supply for sustainable development, air pollution, and climate change due to the emission of pollutant gases from fossil fuels (e.g, coal, oil, and gas) for use in production. Various goods and services are produced and eventually lead to global warming (Adams, 2006). Studies of greenhouse gas production indicate that in the course of economic development, the emission of gases such as methane and nitrous oxide have played far less of a greenhouse effect over the past 60 years. It also has a longer life span than the other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This makes climate change and pollution caused by increased carbon emissions more important than other greenhouse gases (IEA, 2009). Theoretical framework In the Kuznets curve, there is an inverse relationship between environmental degradation and economic growth, meaning that per capita income increases at early growth, then decreases as per capita income reaches a threshold (Jafari Samimi & Mohamadi Khayare., 2012). Many studies have used the Cobb-Douglas production function to analyze the relationship between pollution spread and economic growth (Amri, 2016; Zhixin & Xin, 2011; Saidi & Hammami, 2015). Economic activity generates income and wealth, but neglecting environmental considerations and the excessive use of natural resources and the release of pollutions during economic growth have a negative impact on the environment. Accordingly, it can be argued that the causal link between income level and environmental quality is not necessarily one-way from income to environmental quality and can have a two-way effect (Pigou, 1920). Methodology In this study, we introduce the 3GR model and its components, which illustrate the trilateral relationships between carbon emissions, GDP, and pollution intensity, and explain their dual correlation in terms of growth rate. (1) where and is equivalent to the value of carbon emissions from GDP and the pollution intensity, respectively. is annually GDP. is pollution intensity annually. In addition, is an unknown function that points to the interactive effect on carbon emissions. In order to directly compare the effect of carbon dioxide emissions, their absolute contribution to the pollution emission is calculated by equations 2, 3 and 4. (2) (3) (4) Results and Discussion Based on Equations 2 to 4, the absolute contribution of GDP, pollution intensity and their interactive effect on carbon emissions is shown in Table 1. Table 1: Absolute share (in percent) of pollutant emission components (PE) countries Developed countries Developing countries Less developed countries Portugal Denmark Germany Indonesia Turkey Iran Ethiopia Uganda Angola 48.1 46.59 45.75 57.42 56.98 57.38 61.93 78.61 62.58 51.91 52.99 54.15 37.95 41.47 35.66 23.55 16.06 29.66 0.07 0.42 0.08 4.63 2.55 6.96 14.51 5.32 7.75 Source: Research Results Since the effect of ED for all developing and less developed countries is over 50%, so is the major factor in the changes in carbon emissions (PE). But in developed countries, the main cause of changes in carbon emissions is the pollution intensity (PI) because it is the most prevalent factor. The interactive effects of GDP and the pollution intensity for these countries range from 1 to 7 percent. Whereas Turkey's interactive share is the lowest among the least developed countries and is closer to the developed countries, but the interactive effect for Iran is close to 7%, which is similar to the least developed countries. Conclusion and Suggestions The results show that based on the 3GR model there is a direct relationship between carbon emission rate and economic growth rate or carbon emission rate and pollution intensity growth rate, while the relationship between pollution intensity growth rate and economic growth rate in selected countries when their equivalent value is constant, is inverse. The value equivalent to the rate of economic growth in developed countries is lower than in other countries. However, for the pollution intensity growth rate this relationship is inverse. The results also show that economic growth factors and pollution intensity in developed countries are approximately equal, but the share of economic growth rate in greenhouse gas emissions in developing and less developed countries is higher than pollution intensity. Also, the interactive effect between economic growth and pollution intensity introduced in the model as an unknown factor (which may be political, cultural, or social) is more common in less developed and developing countries.
Atieh Sharekian; mohamad reza Lotfalipour
Abstract
Issues related to environment are one of the most important issues the communities are facing with in the recent decades. On the other hand, the resource scarcity and the necessity of development for Iran and other similar countries makes the issue of efficiency as a solution of the environmental crisis ...
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Issues related to environment are one of the most important issues the communities are facing with in the recent decades. On the other hand, the resource scarcity and the necessity of development for Iran and other similar countries makes the issue of efficiency as a solution of the environmental crisis important. In this study, the effects of the variables energy intensity (as one of the most common indicators of efficiency), population, affluence (GDP per capita), and the energy use are examined on the carbon dioxide emission with the method of panel data for the period of 1996- 2010.
Nowadays due to the expansion of human economic activities, the environment has been destroyed dramatically at the local and international level, thus, considering carbon emission and its issues have become one of the most challenging issues during the recent decades (Deluna, 2008). Also, the existence of the bilateral relation between growth and the environmental development is one of the more important and complex problems which has always captured different points of view (Dincer,1999). Different countries are willing to achieve the balanced growth rate which requires special attention to the destructive pconsequences emerging as a result of the subsequent of energy consumption. The lack of attention to this matter can bring irreparable problems to the countries (Sadeghi & Sadat, 2004).
Too aggregation of the greenhouse gasses in atmosphere is one of the most important reasons of rapid changes in climate. Changes in climate, in turn, leads to an increase in world temperature, rising of the sea level , irregular weather condition, outbreak of floods, and other damages on earth. Solving these environmental problems with different subsequences is usually difficult. For example, to save the coastal areas replacing millions of population to other places is required (Delona, 2008). On the basis of the governmental climate change organization report only up to 2020, there is an opportunity to reverse the increasing trend of emission and its results.
Theoretical Framework
One of the most popular methods which is usually used for the environmental issues is the equation of Environmental Impact, Population, Affluence, and Technology (EIPAT). This Model considers the effects of important variables can improve the environmental conditions as the technical innovation and improvement in technology is considered at this method. On the basis of this methodology, three major elements have more impact on the environment. These variables are population, affluence, and technology. Any changes in the abovementioned variables affect the condition of the environment. The relation between the technical innovation and environment is apparent in this model. Meanwhile, in spite of Erlich and Holdern, (1971), population factor is at the core of this model, on the other hand population growth causes an increase in the consumption which, in turn, can affect the income. At the same time technology is implicitly considered at this framework. Technology improvement may get fixed or even decrease per energy consumption due to the increase in efficiency.
Methodology
On the basis of the theoretical framework the main important variables which are selected in this study are, population, energy intensity which are the proxy of energy efficiency, affluence, energy consumption, and the foreign direct investment for the period of 1996-2010. Energy intensity is modified as a portion of energy consumption to GDP. The data is collected from the nine member countries which are Algeria, Angola, Indonesia, Iran, Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates. The data base is collected from the World Bank data base. Also, the data from population (urban population), affluence (per capita Income), foreign direct investment, and energy consumption are collected from the World Bank data base. Due to the different data base used in the current work, the methodology is a logarithmic model. This study examines the relationship between the efficiency of energy and the economic growth among the selected OPEC member countries.
Results & Discussion
Results show that the population is a more important factor in carbon dioxide emission. Subsequent to population growth, are the demand increase in farm lands, energy resources, water requirements, and so on. All these lead to a destruction of environmental issues (Perman, et al.2003). The results also show that a huge percent of emission is related to the increase in the population rate. Meanwhile, the energy efficiency shows a significant effect on the environmental issues. It means while the energy density increases, the emission also rises and vice versa. Hence, the improvement in energy efficiency will affect the quality of environment. Also, there is a significant positive relation between per capita income and the dioxide carbon emission (Asgharpour, et al.2013).
Energy efficiency also has a meaningful positive effect on the environmental indices. It means that by the increase of energy intensity, dioxide emission will also increase, and vice versa. The findings confirm the obtained results of Delona, 2008, Diters, 1998, and Rose. One of the most important factors in the rise of energy intensity, is the low quality and the price of the productions compared to the similar productions in other countries. The main reason for this, is because of the old manufacturing structure in the developing countries along with the cultural and social factors.
