Abstract
In the contemporary global context, economic growth has engendered various factors such as increased trade, industrialization and technological advancements, giving rise to negative externalities on a worldwide scale. Among these, environmental destruction stands as a significant global public bad resulting from these adverse effects. Balancing economic growth objectives while addressing environmental challenges has become a paramount issue for modern society. This study investigates the correlation between economic growth and environmental degradation across 33 OECD countries during the period 1995–2015, employing fixed effect with Driscoll-Kraay standard error estimation approach. The findings surprisingly revealed an inverted N-shaped relationship between economic growth and air pollution levels, contradicting the conventional Environmental Kuznets Curve theory. Our analysis also shows that rising renewable energy consumption helps reduce CO2 emissions, while non-renewable energy consumption has the opposite effect.