Determinants of carbon dioxide emissions: Empirical evidence from 69 countries

This study investigates the determinants of carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) for a global panel consisting of 69 countries using a dynamic panel data model. To make the panel data analysis more homogenous, we also investigate the determinants of CO2 emissions for a number of sub-panels. These sub-panels are constructed based on the income level of countries. In this way, we end up with three income panels; namely, high income, middle income, and low income panels. The time component of our dataset is 1985–2005 inclusive. Our main findings are that trade openness, per capita GDP, and energy consumption, proxied by per capita electric power consumption and per capita total primary energy consumption, have positive effects on CO2 emissions. Urbanisation is found to have a negative impact on CO2 emissions in high income, middle income, and low income panels. For the global panel, only GDP per capita and per capita total primary energy consumption are found to be statistically significant determinants of CO2 emission, while urbanisation, trade openness, and per capita electric power consumption have negative effects on the CO2 emissions.