Modeling the global relationships among economic growth, energy consumption and CO2 emissions

The relationships among economic growth, energy consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions needs to be paid attention since the characteristics of global warming is from economy and greenhouse gas emissions. This study employs a panel cointegration and vector error-correction model to discuss the dynamic economy-energy-environment nexus for 188 countries for the periods of 1993-2010. The empirical results indicate that there exist long-run relationships between economic growth, energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions for all countries. It is worth noting that energy consumption negatively affects GDP in the world as a whole and developing countries, but not in developed countries. And the unidirectional causality from energy consumption to carbon dioxide emissions exists both on developing and developed countries. That means the developed countries should take more responsibility on the energy efficiency and mitigating Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHGE). On other hand, environmental regulations related to the prevention of environmental degradation as the economy grows need to be adopted by all countries.