Urbanization and climate change: Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) and STIRPAT analysis for Turkey

Abstract

Urbanization and CO2 emissions have become major environmental concerns that are closely related to climate change and sustainable economic growth. The goal of this paper is to investigate the long-run relationship between CO2 emissions, urbanization, and achieving sustainable development in Turkey from 1990 to 2020. The STIRPAT hypothesis and the Environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis are employed in the article. The findings indicate that there is a long-run relationship between the variables of the STIRPAT model: the coefficient of economic activities and urbanization affects CO2 emission positively. This means that urbanization and the expansion of economic activity have a significant impact on environmental degradation. These results are also confirmed by the N-shaped Environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) that is detected for Turkey.