Empirical investigation of environmental Kuznets curve for carbon emission in Morocco

•The long run estimates depicted the U-shape relationship between carbon emissions and income in Morocco.•Energy consumption has deteriorated the environment quality.•Foreign trade is beneficial for the environment.•There is strong one way causation from income to carbon emissions.•Morocco can improve environment quality by reducing the carbon emissions without disturbing the economic pace of the economy.

This study explored the relationship among income, carbon emissions, energy consumption, and trade openness for Morocco from 1971 to 2011. The Johansen cointegration technique confirmed the long run relationship among the variables. The energy consumption deteriorated the environment quality and found to be true for both short run and long run. Foreign trade is beneficial for environment quality as foreign trade openness has negative impact on carbon emissions. This study did not confirm the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in long run. Furthermore, there is a strong one way causation from income to carbon emissions. Thus, Morocco can improve environment quality by reducing the carbon emissions and it will not disturb economic pace of the economy. Therefore, energy and trade policies should be made growth oriented. In the same way energy production and consumption has to be made environmental friendly.