Emission intensive growth and trade in the era of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) integration: An empirical investigation from ASEAN-8

This paper attempts to shed some light on the energy consumption and associated emissions linking recent trade integration for eight economies in the ASEAN region: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Considering the heterogeneity across the panel of countries, a long-run relationship is established between output, energy, trade, and emissions over a period of three decades. The role of transportation is considered in this respect. The overall findings indicate that the environmental consequences of economic growth are alarming for most of the countries in the panel, and non-renewable energy consumption is the key contributing factor towards environmental deterioration in the ASEAN region. Of the eight, it is further established that five economies from the region (Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam) predominantly engage in emission-intensive trade and an increase in future energy demand and environmental degradation is projected for these countries. We suggest that the implementation of economic and trade policies in future should align with the energy sector. In this respect, renewable energy sources will play a greater role in sustainable growth and development across the countries.