Assessing income, population, and technology impacts on CO2 emissions in Canada: Where's the EKC?

This study investigates the macroeconomic forces underlying carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuel use in Canada. In keeping with the relevant literature on environmental degradation, three forces are expected to influence CO2 emissions: gross domestic product per capita (GDP/capita), population and technological change. While previous work has employed reduced-form models that allow for non-linear relationships between CO2 and GDP/capita, it has been common practice to assume linear relationships between CO2 and the latter two variables. This study tests a more flexible model using a five-region panel data set in Canada over the period 1970-2000. Findings indicate that GDP/capita is unrelated to CO2, that an inverted U-shaped relationship exists with population, and that a U-shaped relationship exists with technology. Thus, technological and population changes are supported over the commonly hypothesized environmental Kuznets curve (an inverted U-shaped relationship between GDP/capita and environmental degradation) for affecting CO2 emissions from fossil fuel use in Canada.