Empowering Development in the 21st Century: Energy – Growth – Environment Nexus in the Asia Pacific Region

Abstract

This paper explores the dynamic nexus of non-renewable and renewable energy consumption, economic growth, urbanization, and FDI and its impact on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions for thirteen (13) selected countries in the Asia Pacific region from 1960-2019 using panel OLS, cointegration, panel EGLS, cross-dependence tests, and pairwise granger causality tests. Empirical results proved the existence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) and corroborate the subsistence of the Energy-Environmental Kuznets Curve (E-EKC) for thirteen (13) selected countries in the Asia Pacific region. Results from the pairwise granger causality test supported the conservation and neutrality hypothesis among the selected countries wherein the former showed a unidirectional causal relationship running from real GDP per capita to non-renewable energy consumption (GDP→NEC). Finally, this study provided possible recommendations to policymakers in developing effective carbon emission reduction and energy efficiency strategies for a sustainable economy to foster.