The effect of income inequality on carbon dioxide emissions: A case study of Indonesia

The impact of technological innovations on the environmental Kuznets curve: evidence from EU-27

The EKC hypothesis expresses the inverted U-shaped relationship between per capita income and environmental quality. In the literature, the role of technological innovations and income inequality on pollution is a relatively recent discussion in the studies testing the EKC hypothesis. The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of technological innovations, income inequality, exports, urbanization, and growth on CO2 emissions in EU-27. In addition, while investigating this relationship, exports and urbanization are also considered and panel vector autoregression (PVAR) analysis is applied for the 2005-2019 period. According to the coefficient estimation results, while income inequality, exports, and urbanization increase pollution, technological innovations contribute to environmental quality. Also, the results demonstrated that the EKC hypothesis is invalid in these countries and there is a U-shaped relationship between growth and emissions. The causality test results revealed the presence of unidirectional causality running from all explanatory variables to CO2 emissions. Moreover, impulse-response graphs demonstrated that the reply of emissions to the shocks in the explanatory variables is similar to the long-run coefficient results. In conclusion, all available empirical evidence for this relationship highlights that income inequality and technological innovations should be considered in policy-making processes to ensure environmental quality in EU-27 countries.

Income Inequality, Economic Complexity, and Renewable Energy Impacts in Controlling Consumption-Based Carbon Emissions

Although many studies have been conducted on the role of renewable energy in the environment, literature has ignored the potential role of socioeconomic indicators in renewable energy and pollution nexus. Also, critical questions arose with the critical factors, such as income inequality and economic complexity, have not been answered properly. This study explores the nexus between income inequality, economic complexity, renewable energy consumption, GDP per capita, and pollution and thus aims to reach efficient policy strategies by revealing empirical evidence. The study follows an environmental impact model structure and conducts the panel-corrected standard errors and fixed effect regression. BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) are selected to conduct our research. Annual data covering the period 1990-2017 for the sample countries are employed. Consumption-based carbon dioxide emissions as an indicator of environmental pollution are used since income inequality makes more sense in terms of the consumption side of an economy and is more related to consumers rather than the production sector. The obtained results reveal that income inequality has a positive and significant impact on consumption-based carbon dioxide emissions. However, GDP per capita, renewable energy, and economic complexity reduce pollution. It is also observed that the interaction term of inequality and renewable energy decreases emissions. Findings confirm that socioeconomic indicators, such as economic complexity and income inequality with the interaction of renewable energy, are crucial factors in reducing emissions and designing a greener future.

The driving factors behind urban communities' carbon emissions in the selected urban villages of Jakarta, Indonesia

As there is a high number of urban communities and residential activities like electricity uses, transportation, food consumption, garbage production, and knowledge on climate change and carbon emissions, these affect the resulting carbon emissions in the city. However, the studies learn about the association between household and human activities, socio-demographic characteristic, carbon emissions and climate change knowledge on urban communities carbon emissions at Jakarta are still rare. This study aimed to assess whether daily human behavior, demographic variables, climate change knowledge, and carbon emissions knowledge affecting carbon emissions of urban communities. A cross-sectional study design was performed via a structured questionnaire survey and a jejakkarbonku application towards 200 respondents who were living in the two selected urban villages of Jakarta, Indonesia (Jatinegara and East Cengkareng). The results revealed that the mean urban communities' carbon emissions in the region were 4.4 tonnes CO2 eq/th. Electricity consumption in the kitchen and dining room produced the most carbon emissions (38.6%), and waste disposal activity produced the least (0.68%). Urban carbon emissions affected by employment status and income level, but not according to food consumption, garbage production, climate change and carbon emission knowledge. Climate change and carbon emissions knowledge influenced by marital and employment status. Although not significant, in theory, these two types of knowledge contribute indirectly to carbon emissions. Further research on the low carbon diet, intervention studies to increase deep awareness on the carbon emissions and climate change is needed to develop strategies reducing carbon emissions at urban communities.

The effect of income inequality and economic growth on carbon dioxide emission

Most of the developing and emerging countries are focusing to increase economic growth, enhance the living standard of the people, and reduce income inequality. Increasing economic growth through the factors such as agriculture, energy use for production, and other related activities can harm the environment. Considering this situation, this study utilizes data from the Belt and Road Initiative countries for the period of 1999 and 2018 to explore the nexus between income inequality, agricultural value added, and carbon dioxide using two-step system GMM model. The findings of the study indicate that income inequality, economic growth, energy consumption, and agriculture significantly contribute to an increase in carbon emissions and a decrease in environmental quality. On the other hand, the findings also indicate that manufacturing and service industries significantly contribute to an improvement in environmental quality by reducing carbon emissions. The findings lend even more credence to the environmental Kuznets curve, but the results do not indicate that there is a strong relationship between income inequality and economic growth. The outcomes of this study have crucial policy implications for the sample countries to build environmental regulations.

Income inequality, economic growth, renewable energy usage, and environmental degradation in the Belt and Road initiative countries: dynamic panel estimation

This study investigates the effect of income inequality, carbon dioxide emissions, renewable energy consumption, and economic growth on each other's in the Belt and Road initiative countries from 2002 to 2019. By using OLS, fixed effect, difference GMM, system GMM, and seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) models, the results show that income inequality and renewable energy consumption are reduced while economic growth, foreign direct investment, and financial development have an increasing effect on carbon emissions. The effect of carbon emissions and renewable energy consumption is negative, while economic growth is positive and negative for income inequality across different models. Income inequality, carbon dioxide emissions, economic growth, and foreign direct investment are negatives for renewable energy consumption. Income inequality is positive, while carbon dioxide and financial development negatively affect economic growth. The findings have considerable policy implications for the sample countries regarding income distribution, energy use, environmental quality, and enhancing economic growth. The countries should focus on acquiring renewable energy sources to increase economic growth and reduce environmental pollution.

Greenhouse gas emission widens income inequality in Africa

Over the past couple of decades, the world has witnessed a rise in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and rising income inequality that threatens human well-being. Addressing these challenges and ensuring sustainable development become a pressing issue for policymakers. This paper investigates the impact of GHG emissions on income inequality in Africa. The study uses a panel data set from 49 countries from 1981 to 2015 and shows that GHG emission widens income inequality. The result is robust for alternative emission indicators. A direct implication is that climate change policy should be designed to narrow income inequality. It is emphasized that mitigation actions should focus on the agriculture sector. Hence, intervention towards energy-smart agriculture, land conservation practices, exploiting the job creation potential, and strengthening value addition in the agricultural sector is decisive. Reforming agriculture reduces emission, narrows income inequality, and realizes sustainable development on the continent.

Investigating the environmental externalities of tourism development: evidence from Tanzania

Tourism growth is an important component for welfare improvement in the host destination, but it can be associated with environmental degradation. The aim of the current study is to assess the environmental impacts of tourism growth in Tanzania, using time series data for the period 1995-2017. It utilizes ecological footprints as a proxy for environmental damage, tourism receipt as an economic indicator, and primary energy consumption, urban population, and trade openness as control variables. The study employs Autoregressive Distributed Lag Bounds Testing, Vector Error Correction Model (VECM), and Granger causality test for analysis and the Wild Bootstrap approach to check the accuracy of the computed statistics. The VECM Granger causality test shows that in the case of Tanzania, international tourism revenue and trade openness compact environmental degradation, while urbanization and primary energy consumption accelerate it. Besides, while long run cointegration exists among the variables, the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis was not ascertained in Tanzania. Therefore, Tanzania must adopt more proactive urban planning strategies to achieve sustainable urbanization thereby improving the quality of the environment. Additionally, it is important for Tanzania to make strategic use of trade and tourism receipts, such as investment on renewable energy, to lessen dependence on fossil fuels, and improve environmental sustainability. So, the study opens new policy perspectives with wide international relevancy as outlined in the policy implication section.

Turning points for environmental sustainability: the potential role of income inequality, human capital, and globalization

Recently, the potential role of social indicators in environmental degradation gets immense attention. Environmental degradation and income inequality are two of the hot topics of debate that anticipate urgent solution. However, income inequality-CO₂ emissions nexus has been little investigated in the literature. This study explores the relationship between income inequality and carbon dioxide emission by incorporating globalization and human capital as the determinants of this relationship. The study deploys an innovative technique of dynamic auto-regressive distributive lag simulation to evaluate data covering the period 1980-2015. Findings indicate that unequal distribution of wealth negatively affects carbon emissions. Likewise, the results show that globalization and human capital contribute to environmental degradation. The inclusion of transmission variables validates findings of the study. Policy strategies toward better income distribution and positive externalities of globalization are suggested for sustainability transitions.

Breaking barriers to low-carbon development in Indonesia: deployment of renewable energy

The Indonesian government is incorporating Low-Carbon Development (LCD) into its National Medium-Term Development Plan 2020-2024. In the future, the energy sector will become the largest carbon emitter unless the government commits to dissolving barriers to renewable energy expansion. Literature studies indicate four barriers to LDC namely socio-cultural, economic, technology, and governance. This research aims to examine the barriers that hinder the implementation of LCD in Indonesia and to analyze which barriers are most significant. This study uses mixed methods. Qualitative and quantitative data were generated during fieldwork in DKI Jakarta, Bali, West Nusa Tenggara, and Bangka Belitung provinces. The Partial Least Square - Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) approach was used to measure the direction and strength of the relationship. The qualitative approach is useful for further deepening the provincial context that was not captured from the previous approach. This study indicates that among those four barriers, technological and governance barriers have negative significant and direct effects on LCD, and governance needs to be treated as the most critical barrier. This study emphasizes the importance of collaboration between central and local governments in implementing LCD. Shared vision, equal responsibilities, commensurate governance roles, development of fiscal instruments, can improve the coherence and continuity of renewable energy development programs and activities.

Income inequality and environmental degradation in Egypt: evidence from dynamic ARDL approach

Over the past four decades, the Egyptian economy has suffered from both income inequality and environmental degradation. This dual problem raises the question about the nature of the relationship between inequality and the environment in a developing country like Egypt. In this regard, the study aims to examine the impact of income inequality on carbon emissions during the period 1975-2017. The analysis considers the ability of the political economy approach compared to the Keynesian trade-off approach to explain the inequality-environment relationship in Egypt. To do this, the novel dynamic autoregressive distributed lags approach is employed to capture the short-run and long-run relationships and to overcome the complications associated with the structure of the widely used autoregressive distributive lags model. The findings show that the relationship between inequality and CO₂ emissions is not a trade-off. Rather, inequality leads to environmental deterioration in the long run, but there is no significant effect in the short run. In the long run, a 1% rise in the Gini coefficient increases CO₂ emissions by 2.28%. These results support the political economy approach in explaining the inequality-environment nexus. Hence, the economic development policies adopted in Egypt during the past four decades have led to a negative impact on the environment. The study advises economic policy makers in Egypt to adopt income redistribution policies to reduce the severity of income inequality. Improving income distribution has a positive effect on the environment in Egypt.

Environmental impacts of income inequality: evidence from G7 economies

This study probes the environmental consequences of income inequality (INQ) in G7 economies from 1971 to 2015. INQ is captured by four indicators comprising GINI coefficients, Palma ratio, Theil index, and Atkinson index on per capita carbon emission as a proxy for environmental degradation using both fully modified OLS (FM-OLS) and dynamic OLS (D-OLS). The empirical data are subjected to pre-test using cross-sectional dependence (CSD) test and panel unit root and panel cointegration tests. The following results are established. First, the absence of CSD and presence of cointegration is confirmed. Second, positive effects of INQ indices are reported for the panel analyses. Third, the results of country-specific analyses are divergent and mixed among the G7 economies. For instance, positive impacts are reported for Canada, Japan, and the USA and negative for France and Germany; and insignificant impacts are evident in the case of Italy and the UK. Fourth, the effects of other covariates emerge from two directions entailing both positive and negative. While per capita GDP (LGDPPC) and trade openness (OPN) are aligned with the former a prior, per energy use (PEU) and inflation (INF) satisfied the latter. Consequently, embarking on pro-poor programs such as social welfare funds, private initiative support fund, and state intervention aimed at checkmating the excesses of the capitalists is seen as sacrosanct to solving the INQ-pco2 nexus disharmony.

Exploring the impact of narrowing urban-rural income gap on carbon emission reduction and pollution control

Over the past four decades, China have experienced rapid economic growth but also a widening urban-rural income gap and deteriorating air quality. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2006 to 2017, this paper investigates the effect of narrowing the urban-rural income gap on carbon emission reduction and pollution control by using OLS method. The empirical results indicate that: the narrowing of the urban-rural income gap has a positive impact on pollution control, while there are regional differences in the impact on carbon emission reduction. In the perspective of the whole country and central and western regions, the narrowing of the urban-rural income gap is conducive to carbon emission reduction. However, the narrowing of the urban-rural income gap increases carbon emissions in the eastern regions where economic development is at high level. This paper provides a theoretical basis and policy reference for promoting urban-rural integration and construction of ecological civilization.

Income inequality, economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions nexus: empirical evidence from Ethiopia

The relationship between income inequality, economic growth, and CO₂ emissions is ambiguous both theoretically and empirically. Hence, this study examines the link between income inequality, economic growth and CO₂ emissions in Ethiopia for time span covering 1979-2014 using ARDL bounds test and DOLS approach to cointegration. The Zivot-Andrews unit root test and Clemente-Montanes-Reyes unit root test reveal that some of the variables under consideration are stationary at level while others become stationary after first differencing. Both ARDL and DOLS approaches confirm that there is a long-run relationship among the series during the study period. The long-run empirical results show that a 1% increase in economic growth accounts for a 1.05% increase in CO₂ emissions while a 1% increase in economic growth squared reduces CO2 emissions by 0.11%. The U-test result reveals that the relationship between CO₂ emissions and economic growth confirms existence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis. The effect of income inequality on CO₂ is not robust to alternative estimation techniques; it is statistically insignificant under the ARDL estimation, but DOLS estimates show that a 1% increase in income inequality increases CO₂ emissions by 0.21% in the long-run during the study period. In the long-run, a 1% rise in urbanization, population size, energy intensity, and industrialization each positively contribute to environmental degradation in Ethiopia by 0.38%, 0.22%, 0.07%, and 0.11% respectively. Results from the Toda-Yamamoto Granger causality show a bidirectional causal relationship between CO₂ emissions and all other variables except economic growth. CO₂ emissions Granger causes economic growth with no feedback effect. Results suggested important policy implications in the light of achieving its 2030 targets of low-carbon economy for Ethiopia.