Is Economic Globalization Destructive to Air Quality? Empirical Evidence from China

Is Economic Globalization Destructive to Air Quality? Empirical Evidence from China

Recently, as carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have increased overall and contributed to air pollution, and awareness of environmental degradation has grown. This study examines the impacts and causalities of economic globalization, economic growth, energy consumption, and capital formation on CO2 emissions in China over the period 1971–2014. The vector error correction model (VECM) and Granger causality test on time-series data are employed to observe the interactions between CO2 emission, economic globalization, and various economic factors, including economic growth, energy consumption, and capital formation, since China’s early stage of globalization. The empirical results indicate the existence of bidirectional causalities from economic growth, gross capital formation, economic globalization, and CO2 emission to energy consumption, and bidirectional casualty from energy consumption to CO2 emission relationships in the short run. The findings of this study suggest that indirect bidirectional causalities from economic growth, economic globalization, and capital formation to CO2 emission through energy consumption are observed. Moreover, economic globalization accelerates CO2 emission in the short run but decreases it in the long run. To reduce CO2 emissions, and to ensure sustainable economic growth and economic globalization progress, some crucial energy-saving and energy-efficiency policies, regulatory rules, and laws are recommended.